Getty Andrea Bocelli has two kids with his ex-wife and another child with his second wife.
Legendary opera singer Andrea Bocelli is slated to perform on Easter Sunday to the Duomo Cathedral in Milan, Italy. The father-of-three, who has been married two times, said he wants to lead the world in musical prayer as countries over the world battle the deadly coronavirus.
Bocelli is currently married to Veronica Berti, who is 25 years younger than him. They married in 2014 after meeting in 2002. They have one child together, a daughter named Virginia. Berti also works as her husband’s manager and singing partner.
Bocelli was first married to Enrica Cenzatti. They had two sons together, Amos and Matteo. Matteo has gone on to have a singing career of his own, where he has also performed with his famous father.
Bocelli told NBC News he would perform “Ave Maria” and Mascagni’s “Sancta Maria.” He said, “I chose some of the most beautiful pieces of sacred artists and I will sing this kind of music.”
“I believe in the strength of praying together,” Bocelli continued. “I believe in the Christian Easter, a universal symbol of rebirth that everyone – whether they are believers or not – truly needs right now.”
Bocelli emphasized the theme of rebirth when first announcing his Easter prayer. “The generous, courageous, proactive Milan and the whole of Italy will be again, and very soon, a winning model, engine of a renaissance that we all hope for. It will be a joy to witness it, in the Duomo, during the Easter celebration which evokes the mystery of birth and rebirth,” he said in a statement via Variety. Viewers can watch the performance at 1 p.m. ET on YouTube.
The star added: “Thanks to music, streamed live, bringing together millions of clasped hands everywhere in the world, we will hug this wounded earth’s pulsing heart, this wonderful international forge that is the reason for Italian pride.”
To find out more about Bocelli and his family, continue reading below:
1. Bocelli Met His First Wife Before He Was Famous
Bocelli and Cenzatti met at a piano bar when she was 17 years old. Bocelli was 29 and a law graduate. They started dating shortly after they met, and by 1992 they were married.
They welcomed their first son, Amos, was born in 1995. Matteo was born in 1997. Bocelli’s career started to take off at the same time he was having a family.
After 10 years of marriage, he and Cenzatti split. They remained cordial, living near each other in Tuscany, Italy. Though their sons lived with Cenzatti, they often visited their father at his villa. When Bocelli later met and married Berti, it was reported that Cenzatti and Berti also had an amicable relationship.
Other than being Bocelli’s first wife, not much is known about Cenzatti. She has stayed out of the press and seemingly likes to live a private life.
2. Bocelli’s Son Matteo Has a Music Career of His Own
Matteo Bocelli has inherited his father’s musical genes. They sang together on the song “Fall on Me,” off Bocelli’s album, called Si. They performed the single together during a 2018 episode of Dancing With the Stars.
Bocelli told Billboard he and his son have different types of voices, but there’s one thing they have in common. “Technically they are very different, but there is one thing that makes them most similar: the attitude. That characteristic way of expressing yourself through your voice,” he said.
“This makes Matteo and I very similar,” Bocelli added. “But that is something that you cannot learn, that cannot be taught. That is something you are born with.”
On his website, he said it was an “unexpected privilege” to be able to sing alongside Matteo. “I always admired those fathers who ran a family business and had the privilege of engaging their children. I thought this would be impossible in my case, but life proved me wrong,” Bocelli wrote. “I was pleasantly surprised. It is a great joy to be able to have my son next to me on stage.”
3. His Current Wife Is His Soul Mate
On his website, Bocelli talks about the connection he has with his current wife, Berti. “When two people still want to be together in every possible way after many years, it means that one soul completes the other, that we recognized each other. Veronica and I were soulmates right from the start,” he said.
Even though there are 25 years between them, Bocelli never saw their age gap as an issue. “I am very religious, and age difference is something you see a lot in biblical marriages,” the singer wrote in a 2014 op-ed for The Guardian. He added that people in his own family had age differences and it wasn’t a problem for them.
The singer added on his website: “Veronica is my companion, my best friend, my lover, my partner in joy and pain; she is my go-to person, and she brings peace and unity into our family. She is also my manager. I can say that I was lucky enough to be able to share not only my private life, but also my professional life with the woman I love.”
4. Bocelli Said He and Berti Have Great Sexual Chemistry
Upon meeting Berti, one of the first things that attracted Bocelli was Berti’s skin and her voice, he said in the Guardian op-ed. They had instant chemistry.
“My theory is chemistry. If there’s chemistry between two people, then there is poetry, there is harmony, there is mutual understanding — there is love; if not, nothing,” he explained during an interview with People magazine after he and Berti married.
“If the bedroom door opens the world to something beautiful and interesting, then love will last,” he continued. “If the bedroom door opens onto something that’s boring or uninteresting, it won’t last.”
5. Daughter Virginia Is the ‘Princess’ of the Family
Virginia was born on the first day of Spring in 2012. At the time, Amos was 17 and Matteo was 14. “With a dad and two older brothers [Virginia] will have very attentive bodyguards,” Berti teased during an interview with the Daily Mail.
Virginia has her own section on Bocelli’s website called, “Our Princess.”
“She is our princess,” Bocelli wrote. “She is the family’s sunshine. It is no coincidence that Virginia was born on the first day of spring, which is also the day when Veronica and I got married.”
Bocelli continued: “To be a father again, fifteen years after the birth of my second child, was a great joy as well as a reminder not to rest on my laurels, professionally speaking.”
The singer said it was a privilege to be a father later in life. “I think that becoming a father again now that I’m a mature man helped me be a less anxious, stronger parent, more capable of treasuring every moment with my children as they grow up next to me every day,” he said.
READ NEXT: How Enrica Cenzatti, Andrea Bocelli’s Ex-Wife, Fell In Love with Him
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Andrea Bocelli’s Kids & Family: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know