A former Playboy model-turned-Italian princess has been evicted from her $533 million Roman villa amid an inheritance battle with her stepchildren.
Princess Rita Jenrette Boncompagni Ludovisi was escorted out of the property by police on Thursday, April 20, and locksmiths immediately began changing the locks.
"It's illegal. I think that it's a travesty this is a brutal ending and unnecessary," she said in a Twitter video. "It didn't have to happen this way I don't get it. Someone said it's because I'm a woman and I'm American. This is so illegal it's incomprehensible what they're doing. It's all about money obviously."
Because of her marriage to late husband Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, Rita was well known in Rome. However, the Texas native was also a known face in America in the early '80s after appearing on the cover of Playboy twice. In addition, the model, who went by the name Rita Jenrette and Rita Carpenter while appearing on magazine covers, was also once married to former South Carolina congressman from 1976 to 1981.
Rita was married to Nicolò from 2009 until his death in 2018. Soon after the death, Nicolò's children from a previous marriage accused her of stealing their inheritance and letting the Villa Aurora deteriorate, which she denies. The home has been with the Ludovisi family since the early 1600s, but the estate, which contains the only known ceiling painted by Caravaggio, is now up for auction.
Since Nicolò's death, his children have insisted that the property belongs to them and that their grandfather intended for them to inherit it. Their father, they say, mismanaged his fortune.
The Daily Mail claims a judge evicted Rita and alleged that she allowed an exterior wall in the world's most expensive property to crumble. Images, though, show that the wall is still standing. In addition, the judge said Rita violated a previous order forbidding her from conducting guided tours of the property, which she admittedly did.
"I'm being brutally evicted from a home in which I've lovingly taken care of for 20 years with my beloved husband," she said on Thursday.
Proving there's bad blood between Rita and her widow's children, Prince Bante Boncompagni Ludovisi, one of Prince Nicolò's children, was on hand to witness to "that woman" get evicted.
"This house needs renovations. The pipelines of water need to be restored and the frescoes are in danger," he said. "This is a country. We have our police, we have our judges and you need to respect our country and our laws if you stay here."
Rita, though, contends that the eviction is "all about money obviously."