Facing a growing wave of criticism about his personal life, Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi went on the defensive this week, saying that he did not recall meeting a woman who claims he paid her to spend the night at his Rome residence.

In an exclusive interview that was to be published on Wednesday in Chi magazine, which Berlusconi owns, he was asked if he had ever paid a woman “so she would be with him”.

“Naturally, no,” he responded. “I have never understood what satisfaction there is if not in the pleasure of conquest.”

“There is nothing in my private life for which I should apologise,” Berlusconi added, according to a copy of the interview sent by the magazine to reporters on Tuesday in an e-mail message.

Speculation about the nature of Berlusconi’s relationship with the 18-year-old Noemi Letizia dominated the national conversation before elections for the European Parliament this month, which the Prime Minister’s center-Right coalition won, though with a smaller margin than anticipated.

Berlusconi’s persona has always been a central part of his appeal. But in recent days, a new scandal has erupted as three women said that they were paid to attend parties at Berlusconi’s official Rome residence and that they were given jewellery. The depiction of the PM’s residence as a kind of Playboy Mansion has shifted the public mood in Italy.

Although Berlusconi governs virtually unopposed, some analysts say they believe that the questions about his personal life could start depleting his political capital. The more he is depicted as morally compromised, the harder it will be for him to govern, they say. “He could face a war of attrition,” said Stefano Folli, a columnist for Il Sole 24 Ore. The simmering scandal is “a point of political weakness,” he said, adding, “It poses greater difficulty for governing even his allies.”