Alexandra Zarini, the grandchild of late fashion supremo Aldo Gucci, has filed a lawsuit against her mother’s ex-husband Joseph Ruffalo. Zarini in the complaint said that Ruffalo sexually abused her from ages six to 22. The 35-year-old alleges that he would climb into her bed naked and fondle her and try to penetrate her with his hands.
Zarini alleges that her mother Patricia Gucci and grandmother Bruna Palombo knew of the abuse and asked her to keep it quiet. Ruffalo is a music-industry player who worked with Prince and Earth, Wind & Fire.
As per the lawsuit, Ruffalo would expose his own genitals and rub them on her.
Zarini’s grandmother Palombo in a statement to the New York Times said, "I am deeply sorry for the pain Joseph Ruffalo caused Alexandra.
What he did to her is inexcusable and I was devastated when she disclosed everything to me at our family doctor’s office in London in September 2007.”
The lawsuit reads, both women “tried to avoid, at all costs, what they perceived would be a scandal that could tarnish the Gucci name and potentially cost them millions”. Zarini, in the lawsuit, accuses her mother of sometimes physically hitting her and trying to strangle her. Ruffalo then would come to her in a pretence of trying to comfort her and molest her. Ruffalo also encouraged Zarini to use cocaine and crystal meth, the lawsuit, as quoted in the New York Times reads.
