love is dead

Italian pop star Tiziano Ferro splits from husband, says he’s stuck in the US

By · Updated on January 26, 2024
Tiziano Ferro

Tiziano Ferro is a Grammy-winning Italian singer who first garnered international fame with his 2001 single “Xdono.”

Over the course of the last 20 years, he’s gone on to release 8 studio albums in Italian and Spanish, sung in English, French, and Portuguese, and collaborated with artists like Sting, Ed Sheeran, Mary J. Blige, Timbaland and Andrea Bocelli.

Ferro publicly came out as gay in 2010, has continued to be one of Italy’s top-selling artists, and recently appeared on an episode of Drag Race Italia.

In 2019, he married American businessman Victor Allen, a former consultant for Warner Brothers, in a ceremony in California and another in Italy.

Last year, the couple welcomed the arrival of their two children: son Andres and daughter Margherita. The foursome appeared to be the picture of family bliss as they lived happily in Los Angeles together.

Well, just as the summer of heartache was winding down after claiming A-list queer couples like Ricky Martin & Jwan Yosef, and Billy Porter and Adam Smith, Ferro made the sad revelation that he and Allen were in the midst of a “painful” split.

The breakup comes as Ferro was about to start the European press tour for his new novel “Happiness at the Beginning,” but due to circumstances involving the couple’s children he would not be able to travel outside the country.

“But for reasons I will explain, it is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I must now cancel my book tour,” Ferro wrote in three different languages on Instagram.

“Within the past year, I have been dealing with the painful separation from my husband Victor, in silence and isolation,” he continued.

“I have recently initiated divorce proceedings in Los Angeles and the cirumstances are such that I am unable to leave the state of California with my very young children nor can I leave them behind in California because they are primarily in my care.”

He added: “I love you all so much and it breaks my heart to let you down, but at this time, I must focus on my children’s best interests.”

While Ferro didn’t elaborate with any specifics, rumors began to swirl that the reason he couldn’t travel to Europe had something to do with the recent anti-LGBTQ+ laws enacted by Italy’s new far-right prime minister.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been on an anti-gay crusade since taking power last year and instituted policies ordering the removal of names of non-biological parents from the birth certificates of children with same-sex parents, extended the ban on surrogacy to same-sex couples, and pledged not to push for the legalization of same-sex marriage in Italy.

But under US law, Ferro and Allen were legally married and are the legal parents of their two children.

In a new interview, Ferro cleared up speculation and disclosed his inability to travel has nothing to do with the spate of homophobic laws in Italy.

“Now, not being able to leave with the children is due not to Italian laws, but to a boring and annoying technicality: having a divorce in progress, I cannot leave the State of California with my children,” he told the Itallian publication Corriere. 

“I could have come alone, but it would have meant not being able to take care of them, who in this period are mainly with me.”

Whatever the family drama currently happening behind closed doors, hopefully Perro and his estranged husband can resolve it amicably.

Ferro’s most recent album ll Mondo è Nostro was released in 2022.

Check out more of Tiziano Ferro’s music below:

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