Princess Rita Jenrette Boncompagni Ludovisi – previously Rita Carpenter, the ex-wife of Republican US Representative John Jenrette – has been kicked out of the Casino dell’Aurora, a luxury villa in Rome she formerly shared with the Italian prince Nicolò Boncompagni.
The former actress from Texas was evicted from the Baroque-style residence located a few meters from the Quirinal Palace after an inheritance disagreement with the prince’s heirs. Ms Jenrette inherited the house and was confirmed as his legatee in his will after the prince’s passing in 2018. For five years, however, Mr. Ludovisi’s heirs have maintained that their late father mistreated them and mishandled his riches – and that their grandpa wanted them to inherit the villa.
A civil court consequently mandated that the house be sold to settle the monetary dispute. State officials auctioned off the Casino dell’Aurora four times in 2022. The mansion was valued at €471 ($519) million at the first auction on January 18, 2022. The price was decreased to to €376 ($414) million in a second auction on June 30, to €301 ($331) million in a third sale on April 30, and to €180 ($198) million in a final auction on October 18.
The Texan princess described the eviction as “unexpected and unjust,” and claimed to have sought to negotiate with her late husband’s children. “What a brutal end to my beautiful life with my beloved Nicolò”, she stated on Wednesday. “I’ve been up for 72 hours, I’m being brutally evicted from a home [in] which I’ve lovingly taken care of for the past 20 years,” she later tweeted early Thursday morning.
The villa boasts a Michelangelo statue that was recently discovered in itsyard, as well as an authentic Caravaggio painting that is the only known ceiling piece by the Baroque-era artist.
Before his new life in the Italian capital, Rita Carpenter had been married to John Jenrette, a former US legislator who was implicated in the Abscam corruption scandal, resigned in 1980, and later served time in jail. She described having sex with Jenrette on the steps of the US Capitol building in a well-publicized 1981 Playboy magazine interview.
