Playboy model turned princess faces eviction from $796m royal villa as she battles stepchildren over inheritance

News Corp Australia Network

An American-born Italian princess is facing imminent eviction from her royal villa in Rome amid an intense inheritance battle with her stepchildren.

Princess Rita Jenrette Boncompagni Ludovisi, formerly known as American actress Rita Carpenter, was holding out at the Casino dell’Aurora last week in anticipation of Carabinieri police arriving to escort her out and seize her property, The Post reports.

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A Roman judge ordered in January that Ludovisi must vacate the home by April 20 as part of a ruling that she failed to maintain the historic property, after a wall collapsed and blocked a nearby street.

Those still in the home on Thursday 20th would be forced out of the house, the decree states.

Police are also ordered to take possession of the property, change the locks and “dispose of or destroy” any furniture or documents left behind.

Ludovisi previously said she would “vigorously defend” her lifetime right to stay in the $533m (AU$796m) villa that was bestowed on her by her husband, Prince Nicolo von Boncompagni Ludovisi, following his death in 2018.

The widow asserted that she and her husband worked diligently to restore the villa — which has been in the Ludovisi family since the early 1600s and features the only ceiling mural known to have been painted by 16th-century Italian Renaissance master Caravaggio.

She claimed to have tried negotiating with her late husband’s children, and called the eviction “unexpected and unjust.”

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“What a brutal ending to my beautiful life with my beloved Nicolo,” Ludovisi said Wednesday.

Ludovisi and her stepsons have been locked in a five-year dispute over the home.

The children have argued that their grandfather intended for them to inherit the home and that their late father abused them and mismanaged his fortune.

Ludovisi inherited the home after marrying Prince Nicolo von Boncompagni Ludovisi in 2009 and was solidified as its legatee in his will.

Before marrying the prince, Ludovisi was known as an actress and ex-wife of former Democratic Congressman John Jenrette. Ludovisi famously appeared in two issues of Playboy magazine in the 1980s.

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This story first appeared in The Post and was republished with permission