Ciano, Edda (1910–1995)
Ciano, Edda (1910–1995)
Italian anti-fascist. Name variations: Edda Mussolini. Pronunciation: CHEE-anno. Born in Italy on September1, 1910; died of cardiac arrest related to lung and kidney failure in Rome, Italy, on April 8, 1995; first-born child of Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) and Rachele (Guidi) Mussolini; married Count Galeazzo Ciano (a future Italian foreign minister), in 1930; children: two.
Edda Mussolini Ciano was the firstborn child of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his wife Rachele Guidi . The eldest of five, she had one sister Anna Maria and three brothers, Vittorio, Bruno, and Romano (father of right-wing lawmaker Allessandra Mussolini). Edda was considered the stubborn one in the family; she was the first Italian woman to wear pants and the first to drive a car.
This same inflexibility was to have a profound effect on her life and the short life of the man she married: Count Galeazzo Ciano. In 1943, as foreign minister and a member of the Fascist Grand Council, Galeazzo voted against his father-in-law following the Allied invasion of Italy, a vote that led to Mussolini's arrest and would eventually topple his regime. Despite Edda's pleadings, when the Germans freed Mussolini in 1944, the dictator had her husband executed. "I prefer to be the wife of a victim of fascism," she said, "than the daughter of Il Duce." With that, she renounced her birth name and never used it again. Her father was executed by Italian partisans in 1945.