Early life The first child of
Benito Mussolini and
Rachele Guidi, she was born out of wedlock in
Forlì,
Romagna; her parents did not marry until December 1915. In her early years, while her father was editor of ''
Il Popolo d'Italia'' in Milan, Edda lived with Rachele in Forlì. Her father became Prime Minister of Italy in October 1922 and dictator after January 1925. In March 1925, Rachele and Edda with her brothers and sisters, moved from
Milan to
Carpegna and then to
Rome in November 1929 to live with their father. Edda was a rebellious woman in her youth. Her powerful father made dating difficult, as most young men feared her. She has been described as being opinionated and outspoken. It was while in Rome that she met
Galeazzo Ciano, son of Admiral Count
Costanzo Ciano, a loyal
Fascist and supporter of Benito Mussolini before his
March on Rome. They were married on 24 April 1930 in a lavish ceremony attended by 4,000 guests. Her husband was appointed
Italian Consul in
Shanghai. The couple moved back to
Italy in 1932, where Galeazzo took the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. In China, she had an affair with the Chinese general
Zhang Xueliang.
Second World War After the Italian
invasion of
Albania in June 1939, the city of Santi Quaranta (
Sarandë in Albanian) was renamed "Porto Edda." '', 24 July 1939. In July 1939, she was depicted on the
cover of Time in a feature entitled "Lady of the Axis". During the
Greco-Italian War, Edda Ciano volunteered for service with the Italian
Red Cross. On 14 March 1941, she was embarked near the Albanian port of Valona (now
Vlorë) on the Lloyd Triestino liner
Po, which had been converted into a hospital ship. British planes attacked and sank the ship, with some loss of life. The ship was moored among other vessels with her lights switched off on the orders of the port authorities and was, therefore, a legitimate target and would not have been easily identifiable as a hospital ship. Edda managed to survive, being picked up from the water by another ship. She continued to work for the Red Cross until 1943. It is rumored that
Heinrich Himmler bestowed Edda the rank of an honorary SS leader (
SS Ehrenführerin) in 1943. After Edda's close call in the
Adriatic Sea, Rachele and Benito Mussolini were doubly distressed when her brother,
Bruno, died in August of the same year. For this act, he was arrested for treason in November 1943, tried, and then executed on 11 January 1944. Edda Ciano escaped to
Switzerland on 9 January 1944, disguised as a peasant woman. She managed to smuggle out the Count's wartime diaries, which had been hidden in her clothing by her confidant
Emilio Pucci. At that time he was a lieutenant in the
Italian Air Force but later found fame as a fashion designer. War correspondent Paul Ghali of the
Chicago Daily News learned of her secret internment in a Swiss convent in
Neggio and arranged the publication of the diaries. They reveal much of the secret history of the Fascist regime between 1939 and 1943 and are considered a prime historical source. The diaries are strictly political and contain little of the Cianos' personal lives.
After the war After returning to Italy from Switzerland, Edda was arrested and held in detention on the island of
Lipari. On 20 December 1945, she was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for aiding Fascism.
Marcello Sorgi's book,
Edda Ciano e il comunista (2009), concerns her time on Lipari and her relationship with a young communist who also lived there; this was the basis of a 2011 film starring
Stefania Rocca. Her autobiography,
La mia vita, was published in translation as
My Truth by
Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 1975. At the age of 84, she died in Rome in 1995. == Legacy ==