An Italian beauty consultant who claims to be the heir to the Lamborghini fortune has won the right to have her case heard in court. Flavia Borzone, 37, has long asserted that she is the daughter of Tonino Lamborghini, one of Italy's wealthiest men.
In 2024, she revealed that she had hired a private detective to sift through the rubbish of singer Elettra Lamborghini, Mr Lamborghini's daughter, and discovered a straw that the socialite had used, which she claimed proved they were half-sisters. However, the Lamborghini family argued that the DNA sample was taken without consent and was therefore unlawful.
Now, Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation has ruled that Ms Borzone is not the biological child of the man who raised her in Naples alongside her mother, opera singer and teacher Rosalba Colosimo. This decision opens the door for courts to determine whether Mr Lamborghini — the only son of Ferruccio Lamborghini, founder of the iconic car company — is her father.
If the courts recognise Ms Borzone as Mr Lamborghini's child, she would likely have an equal stake in his inheritance alongside his five other children. Ms Borzone claims that her mother met Mr Lamborghini in the late 1980s when she was 17 years old. According to her account, Mr Lamborghini stopped and offered a ride to Ms Colosimo as she waited for a bus in Milan. The pair allegedly began a relationship, and in 1988, Ms Borzone was born.
Since going public with her claims in 2019, she has faced an uphill battle to prove her connection to the Lamborghini family. In 2024, Ms Borzone and her mother were cleared of defamation charges. At that time, she told the court: 'I don't want to offend anyone. I just want to know whose daughter I am.'
Ferruccio Lamborghini launched the car brand in 1963, initially manufacturing tractors. The brand eventually gained fame for its supercars, including the Miura, Countach, Diablo, and Aventador. The company was sold to Volkswagen in 1988. Tonino Lamborghini launched his own brand under the same name, selling eyewear, jewellery, and watches. In 2017, it had a turnover of around €400 million, and Italian reports suggest Mr Lamborghini is a billionaire.
'What we are concerned with now is establishing the fact that this girl is Lamborghini's daughter,' said Sergio Culiersi, Ms Borzone's lawyer, to The Times. 'She's a young woman who has suffered a lot.'
