Months after he got entangled in a scandal involving a teenage model, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is facing fresh embarrassment after a former escort girl has claimed that he slept with her on the night of Barack Obama’s historic victory as US’s first Black President.

According to 42-year-old Patrizia D’Addario, the PM had hosted a candlelit dinner party for three women at Palazzo Grazioli, his luxurious home in Rome, on the night of Obama’s victory and then he asked her to stay that night, The Sunday Times reported. She claims to have taped the conversation that followed. “Go and wait for me in the big bed,” the 72- year-old billionaire is said to have told her. He was going to have a shower and change into a bathrobe. An extract from D’Addario’s tape that was leaked to an Italian newspaper shows that she replied: “Yes, the big bed”.

According to D’Addario, Berlusconi’s staff reminded him that he was expected at a poll night rally organised by the Italy-USA Foundation, but the PM stayed at home. Officials informed him later of Obama’s victory. The next day, D’Addario claimed Berlusconi gave her a multicoloured tortoise encrusted with precious stones. Berlusconi’s, however, has described the claims as “trash and falsehood”.