Anne Hathaway has never been one to court controversy, but a seemingly throwaway moment during the Devil Wears Prada 2 promo trail has reopened a very old Hollywood chapter. The Oscar-winning actress, now a married mother of two, recently joked that Italian accents “scar” her—a tongue-in-cheek remark that fans quickly linked back to her former relationship with disgraced Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri.
During a recent interview on the Ladbible podcast, the 43-year-old star appeared to make a thinly veiled swipe at her past as the conversation between her, Emily Blunt, and other co-stars took an unexpectedly personal turn. While filming the sequel in Milan, the cast joked about accents, but Hathaway’s responses immediately stood out.
The conversation began with Emily Blunt saying, “I love an Australian accent on a man.” Anne Hathaway replied, “No, I actually think Italian accents are really sexy, but I’m kind of scarred in this respect.” Blunt responded, “That’s true.” Hathaway joked, “So I disagree. Don’t listen to him.” Blunt then laughed, saying, “Annie never wants to hear her name said in an Italian accent.”
Hathaway continued, laughing off the moment but revealing a personal sting: “I do actually love my name. When I go to Italy, and I meet people, they go ‘Anna Atherway’. But that’s not sexy.” Meryl Streep then joined in with her own experience: “When I go there, I’m Mel Strip.” Bridgerton star Simone Ashley added another layer of humour: “When I go there, I’m Simon. Weirdly, I’ll get in a car, and they’re like, ‘Are you, Simon?’ And I’m like, yes. Hello, I’m Simon.”
The exchange ended with playful chatter, but Hathaway’s comments have since been dissected online, with fans interpreting her “scarred” remark as a subtle reference to her past relationship. Anne Hathaway dated Raffaello Follieri in the mid-2000s, during a period when he presented himself as a wealthy Italian property developer with alleged Vatican connections. At the time, Hathaway was rapidly becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest rising stars, and the pair were frequently photographed together at glamorous events.
But in 2008, the story collapsed dramatically. Follieri was arrested in the United States and later pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and defrauding investors by falsely claiming Vatican-linked property deals. Prosecutors said he had misled investors out of millions of dollars using fabricated business claims. He was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison, ultimately serving around three and a half years before being released in 2012 and deported to Italy.
Although Hathaway was never suspected of any wrongdoing, she was inevitably pulled into the media fallout due to the high-profile nature of their relationship. At the time, reports suggested she cooperated fully with authorities as a witness and quickly distanced herself from Follieri once details of the fraud emerged. Friends later described her as “devastated” by the revelations, and she largely avoided discussing the relationship publicly for years.
Instead, she focused on rebuilding her career—a strategy that proved highly successful as she went on to star in major films including The Dark Knight Rises, Les Misérables (for which she won an Academy Award), and later returned to the spotlight in the Devil Wears Prada sequel universe. Her recent “Italian accents are kind of a trigger” remark has therefore been widely read as a rare, lightly humorous acknowledgement of a chapter she has long since left behind.
After the breakup, Hathaway kept her personal life far more private. She began dating actor and jewellery designer Adam Shulman in 2008, the same year her former relationship collapsed publicly—marking a decisive shift away from the high-profile, tabloid-heavy romance that had defined her previous relationship. Unlike her past partner, Shulman was largely outside the Hollywood circus, and the couple’s relationship developed away from constant media attention. They were rarely photographed together in public, preferring low-key appearances and private time over red-carpet exposure. By 2011, the couple were engaged.
They married in September 2012 in a romantic ceremony in Big Sur, California; a notably intimate celebration attended by close friends and family rather than industry spectacle, reinforcing Hathaway’s deliberate step away from chaos and publicity overload. Since marrying Shulman, Hathaway has frequently described her life as far more stable and grounded. The couple welcomed their first son, Jonathan, in 2016, followed by a second son, Jack, in 2019. Hathaway has consistently chosen to keep her children out of the public eye, speaking sparingly about motherhood and maintaining firm boundaries around family privacy. In interviews, she has credited Shulman with being a steady, grounding presence in her life, particularly in contrast to the volatility of her earlier, very public relationship.
Now, Hathaway is once again centre stage thanks to renewed interest in The Devil Wears Prada 2, where she stars alongside Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep, and Stanley Tucci. Filming in Milan has brought the cast back into full fashion-world territory, with the sequel already generating viral behind-the-scenes moments—from playful cultural jokes to candid cast banter that has dominated fan discussion online. Blunt’s quip that Hathaway “never wants to hear her name said in an Italian accent” has only added fuel to the speculation that the actress is knowingly referencing her past while keeping the tone light.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that even major cameos—including one from Sydney Sweeney—were cut during post-production, highlighting the scale of reshaping underway behind the scenes. For Hathaway, the story of Raffaello Follieri remains one of those Hollywood footnotes that refuses to disappear entirely. Though she has long since moved on—building a stable marriage, raising two children, and cementing her place as one of the industry’s most respected actresses—public fascination with her former relationship continues to resurface whenever she speaks candidly, even in passing. And as her latest comments show, sometimes even a joke about an accent is enough to pull a very old scandal back into the spotlight—whether she intends it or not.
