Rachele Mussolini

For the Brothers of Italy politician, see Rachele Mussolini (politician).

Rachele Guidi (Italian: [raˈkɛːle ˈɡwiːdi]; 11 April 1890 – 30 October 1979), also known (particularly in Italy) as donna Rachele^[1] ('Lady Rachel') and incorrectly as Rachele Mussolini in the English-speaking world, was the second wife of dictator and fascist leader Benito Mussolini.

Rachele Guidi
Born	(1890-04-11)11 April 1890 Predappio, Romagna, Kingdom of Italy
Died	30 October 1979(1979-10-30) (aged 89) Forlì, Italy
Spouse	Benito Mussolini ​ ​ (m. 1915; died 1945)​
Children	Edda Mussolini Vittorio Mussolini Bruno Mussolini Romano Mussolini Anna Maria Mussolini

Early life

Rachele Guidi was born in Predappio, Romagna, Kingdom of Italy. She was born into a peasant family and was the daughter of Agostino Guidi and wife Anna Lombardi. After the death of Rachele's father, her mother became the lover of the widowed Alessandro Mussolini.^{[citation needed]}

Relationship, marriage and children

In 1905 Benito's father, Alessandro Mussolini, had become a widower and opened a tavern in Forlì, on Giove Tonante Street, together with Rachele's mother (also a widow), entertaining an affair with her. Benito, meanwhile, having returned from Switzerland, moved after a couple of years to Forlì, to his father's place, and there he met Rachele again; for them it was the classic love at first sight.^[2][3] However, the families disagreed about their relationship, and so in 1909 Benito summoned his father and Rachele's mother and, wielding a revolver, told them that if they did not consent to their marriage, he would kill her and himself.^[4]

In 1910, Rachele Guidi moved in with Alessandro's son, Benito Mussolini. In 1914, Mussolini married his first wife, Ida Dalser. Although the records of that marriage were destroyed by Mussolini's government, an edict from the city of Milan ordering Mussolini to make maintenance payments to "his wife Ida Dalser" and their child was overlooked.^[5] Shortly before his son, Benito Albino Mussolini, was born to Ida Dalser, Rachele Guidi and Benito Mussolini were married in a civil ceremony in Treviglio, Lombardy, on 17 December 1915. In 1925, they renewed their vows in a religious service (after his rise to power).^{[citation needed]}

Many sources agree that Rachel had a stern and authoritarian temperament, sometimes even more so than her husband: she was, for example, opposed to any act of clemency towards her son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano during the Verona trial and worsened, because of this, her relations with her daughter Edda, who called her "the real dictator of the house".^[6] Moreover, in the last months of 1943 she would go every night for two hours to talk with Guido Buffarini Guidi, minister of the interior of the Italian Social Republic, asking him for more severity in order to restore internal order.^[7]

Children

Rachele Guidi bore five children by Benito Mussolini. Rachele and Benito Mussolini had two daughters and three sons.

1. Edda (1910–1995)
2. Vittorio (1916–1997)
3. Bruno (1918–1941)
4. Romano (1927–2006)
5. Anna Maria (1929–1968)

Author

With Albert Zarca, she wrote a biography of her husband that was translated into English as Mussolini: An Intimate Biography.^[8]