Mario Balotelli’s girlfriend Raffaella Fico made her name on the Italian version of Big Brother.
She met Balotelli in May 2011 at the wrap party for Italy’s I’m A Celebrity-style series, L’Isola dei Famosi where she was a contestant alongside her sister Abigail.
Since helping her parents out at their corner shop in Naples as a teenager, Fico has auctioned her virginity out on eBay for €1m and been a regular at former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi’s infamous ‘bunga bunga’ parties.
Balotelli’s reputation for being a bad boy is well documented, but Fico claims the Manchester City striker has a sensitive side.
"He gets up early and goes to training while I do the housework," she told the Daily Mirror in 2011. “When he comes home, I cook him a pasta lunch and we go for a swim. In the evening we might go out for dinner or I will cook him lasagne and we will watch a DVD.
"He's very deep, but very simple too. He has similar values to me, he is very family-orientated and loves to read.
"As a Neapolitan woman, the only hands in the kitchen are mine and that’s how I keep my man happy. Also... Mario can’t cook anything."
