Italian journalist and author antonio Caprarica reflects on a decades-long career that has taken him from war-torn Afghanistan to royal galas and intimate interviews with world leaders in a new profile. Known for his 25 books – including a dozen focused on the british royal family – Caprarica details memorable encounters and candid opinions, notably regarding former U.S. President Donald trump and the current political climate, while also sharing anecdotes from his time as a RAI correspondent.
The journalist and author reflects on his career, including experiences in Afghanistan and interviews with world leaders.
Antonio Caprarica, do you think you’ll be able to return to the United States after publishing this book?
“Honestly, I fully expect not to be able to go back, at least as long as Trump is still alive. Politically speaking, that is…”
You didn’t hold back with the title: “The Bully.”
“The subtitle explains it: ‘How Donald Trump Destroyed the West.’ I made it clear to my publisher, Piemme, from the start that I wanted to write a partisan essay. In fact, the British Telegraph, a bastion of British conservatism, openly refers to ‘Madness of King Donald.’ And members of the U.S. Congress are questioning his mental health.”
You didn’t shy away from a strong statement with the book’s release.
“When I finished the essay, the former president hadn’t yet launched his bid for Greenland and hadn’t been implicated in the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. But there were already warning signs that ICE was transforming into a ‘Frankenstein task force,’ as one of its former high-ranking officials put it.”
“The Bully” is your 25th book. You’ve dedicated a dozen to the British royal family. Which one are you most fond of?
“Elizabeth. Forever Queen, which I wrote for Sperling & Kupfer. It was published a year before her death.”
Did you send it to her?
“Of course, as I did with all my books about the royal family. She would respond, thanking me, through her lady-in-waiting, the late Lady Susan Hussey, who was forced to leave the court after persistently asking a British activist of color where in Africa she came from—as if I would ask a British man of Pugliese origin what country he was from.”
During your years as a RAI correspondent in London, you were invited to court on several occasions. Do you remember the first time?
“There were two important first times. The first was ‘black tie,’ and the second was ‘white tie’—the white tie is reserved for state galas.”
Tell me about it.
“The first invitation, in a classic tuxedo, was to Windsor Castle six months after the death of Princess Diana. And I made a memorable gaffe with Prince Charles.”
Don’t leave me in suspense.
“At the gala for The Purcell School of Music, 130 guests were invited. I had the honor of participating in a reception reserved for about ten people. When the Prince asked me if it was difficult, as a journalist, to cover him, my tongue ran faster than my thoughts, and I replied that it wasn’t easy to make his image appreciated in Italy. He widened his eyes, and my wife, Iolanta, saved me, saying that all Italian women were in love with him and therefore Italian men tolerated him little. He pretended to believe it.”
And how did the dinner in “White Tie” go?
“The funny thing was that before midnight, the Queen and Prince Philip disappeared and reappeared shortly after, saying they had ‘put to bed’ President Ciampi and his wife, the guests of honor. It was less amusing when I had the audacity to comment on one of her remarks about the unusually warm weather. At the time, there were weekly protests in London against the presence of British soldiers in Iraq. So I said that the soldiers stationed in Baghdad were even warmer. She remained silent for almost a minute and then reiterated that ‘in London’ it was very warm.”
Your best-selling book?
“A political fantasy thriller that I wrote in 1985 with Giorgio Rossi, The Girl with the Lost Steps. It told the story of the murder of a young cleaning woman at Montecitorio, and was an indictment of the Italian political class and, in particular, the Socialist Party, which was at the time its backbone. It sold over 200,000 copies.”
Wasn’t a film made from it?
“The film rights, we discovered later, were purchased with the contribution of the SISMI. And nothing ever came of it. Who knows why…”
You’ve been a director, correspondent from Cairo, Jerusalem, London, Moscow, and Paris, editor-in-chief, reporter, and political columnist. Which role did you enjoy the most?
“All of them. Here, I’ll echo the words of Enzo Biagi, who discovered the elixir of the journalist: ‘I do what I like and I get paid for it.’”
Tell me, when were you most afraid?
“In Afghanistan, in 1988. No RAI correspondent had managed to find a way to get there; I was helped by a Russian contact. I arrived embedded with a group of Russian soldiers. We landed in Jalalabad in the dark, but immediately all the lights came on and the rockets of the Mujahideen began to fall, destroying the accommodations where we were supposed to sleep. We barely had time to throw ourselves to the ground to avoid the shrapnel.”
The report you are most proud of?
“Still on that trip, I was the only journalist, along with the excellent RAI cameraman Franco Stampacchia, to ride on the first column of Russian tanks in retreat under fire from the Mujahideen. RAI sold the footage to all European television stations. And Paolo Frajese, whom I hadn’t even met yet, posted an open letter on the TG1 bulletin board praising me—I still have it. A Russian soldier who loved Luca Barbarossa’s songs helped me there: when I told him we were friends, he went crazy and treated me like a brother.”
The interview you are most proud of?
“Several, but I’ll mention two. One with Gorbachev in 1992: he had recently left the presidency. I was struck by his unreserved praise for John Paul II, who, after all, had played a decisive role in bringing down communism.”
And the other?
“With Yitzhak Rabin during his election campaign. He was a true military man, very rigid, never smiled, but had a look of extraordinary humanity. And even when he received us for the interview and offered us coffee, the first thing he asked was if it was good or if we preferred tea or something else.”
Let’s talk about your ties? What are you wearing today?
“It’s an English Ascot tie, made in Germany, like Rolls Royces…”
Don’t tell me. How many do you have?
“About a thousand, but part of them I inherited from my father: he loved them very much too.”
And where do you keep them all?
“In nests kept around the world: one in London and one in Lugano. Then we have a house in my beloved hometown of Lecce and another that we adore by the sea, in Leuca.”
Your lucky charm?
“I don’t believe in luck.”
Your favorite?
“The pink ones.”
The knot you tie most often?
“The semi-Windsor.”
Have you ever found yourself with a hole in your sock, like King Charles III during his visit to the Brick Lane mosque?
“It’s happened to me, but I’ve never worn one. But I was astonished once when I noticed that the hem of the Queen’s skirt was unstitched in one place during her visit to the Capitol. With twenty seamstresses at her disposal, is it possible that no one had noticed?”
What are your relations with RAI now? You left in 2013, slamming the door.
“They’ve been excellent for years now. The gray men have disappeared, and that’s been my great revenge: time is a gentleman, as they say.”
If you could go back, would you do “Dancing with the Stars” again?
“No, but for one reason: it takes a beastly physique, not mine… Milly told me half the truth about the program; she omitted that the daily training would be so demanding. I was exhausted. But at least I had a lot of fun.”
Since 2000 you have been married to Iolanta Miroshnikova, a Greco-Russian pianist descended from a dynasty of musicians. What are you most grateful to her for?
“Iolanta gave up her career as a concert pianist because it was incompatible with my life always on the road. And for both of us, it was more important to love each other closely. I will always be grateful to her for that.”
