We are so proud of your PM Antonio
For 43 years, Ruggerio Albanese was unaware he had a brother in Australia
ANTHONY Albanese’s halfbrother has opened up for the first time about their long-distance relationship, forged by chance and determination 12 years ago across two hemispheres.
Ruggerio Albanese, an itinerant electrician from Barletta, a small town above Italy’s sun-drenched southern heel, spoke candidly and fondly of the Australian Prime Minister when he sat down with News Corp for an exclusive interview this month.
He told of his joy at learning his half Italo-aussie brother had ascended to the top job Down Under, of the things they have in common and how proud his late father was to learn he had another – albeit illegitimate – son. Ruggerio said the pair stayed in touch, sporadically, through a Whatsapp family message group, along with his sister, nieces and nephews.
“We communicate mostly on Whatsapp,” Ruggerio said, still clad in a tracksuit top and shorts after finishing work at 8pm. “We say funny things about our dogs and the beach – he knows my two loves are my wife and the beach – but not much more because I think he’s very busy.”
The 52-year-old recalls one jovial text exchange he shared with Mr Albanese about their boisterous dogs, from his ninth-floor apartment on the outskirts of Barletta.
“My Toto,” Mr Albanese replied with a picture of himself and his excitable cavoodle on the lounge suite, accompanied by laughing and cringing emojis. When the Labor leader was voted into government with a majority election win in May, the Italian Albaneses sent a jubilant Whatsapp message congratulating him the next day. “Thank you very much xx” Mr Albanese responded to the group chat.
Ruggerio and his sister Francesca have not heard from him since.
“We watched him on television, ‘there he is, there he is’, Ruggerio said, with great enthusiasm.
“It was a great joy for us; we are proud of Antonio.
“When he became prime minister, we telephoned to congratulate and sent greetings but we haven’t seen each other in person since then, sadly.
“I think he is very busy because he is a politician. When he started the mandate (as
PM), because of the political commitment, he became more powerful and important and so … (we didn’t see each other any more). I think he will come to see us soon.
“For us, it’s a bit impossible to go to Australia. My sister and I work a lot, busy all day working, as he is, and also we have Mummy, who is old (to look after).
“When he was in London for the Queen’s funeral, he didn’t come. Since he’s become prime minister he hasn’t come to see us yet.”
For 43 years, Ruggerio was unaware he had a brother growing up on the other side of the world, about 16,000km away in social housing in Camperdown in Sydney’s inner west.
For years, Mr Albanese thought his mum Maryanne was a widow; she gave her son his dad Carlo’s surname to shield her family at a time when being an Irish Catholic mother out of wedlock was frowned upon.
Mr Albanese learned the truth, aged 14, that his mum met his dad while he was working as a steward on a Sitmar line ship Fairsky that sailed between Europe and Australia.
His father had not died in a car crash before his birth, as he’d been led to believe, and the rings on her wedding finger were for appearances only. It wasn’t until his mother, a disability pensioner, died that Mr Albanese found his father in 2009, visiting Barletta four times to meet his half-brother and half-sister, nieces and nephews.
We communicate mostly on Whatsapp. We say funny things about our dogs and the beach THE PM’S HALF-BROTHER RUGGIERO ALBANESE
He also introduced his own son, Nathan, to his grandfather before he died in 2014.
“That’s how I came about in the world but my father was betrothed to a woman from Barletta and hence, Mum came home to have me by herself,” Mr Albanese has previously said.
Ruggerio – a father of two daughters, 17 and 20 – is at pains to stress his father was deeply proud of his illegitimate son, but that Maryanne’s relationship with Carlo was confined only to the Sitmar ship.
“My father didn’t know he had a son. He didn’t remember anything since it happened a long time ago,” Ruggerio explained about the first meeting between his father and Mr Albanese in a lawyer’s office in Barletta.
“It was a shock for my dad; it is only through the photographs that he was able to remember. They were both moved; they cried.
“He was very happy of this; it wasn’t an ugly thing. Even if it was not wanted, something good happened in the end and he (Anthony) wanted to find his father.
“When it all happened, my dad was engaged with my mother so there was nothing to worry about; they were not married.
“My mother did not come to the first meeting. She reacted as all women; she reacted differently from my dad, she wasn’t angry. She didn’t want to know”.
She softened the second time Mr Albanese visited Barletta and joined her husband and the Australian politician for dinner.
“It was only on the boat they (Carlo and Maryanne) knew each other,” he said.
“I want to explain once and for all – imagine, I go on holidays, I meet you and I never see you again for 50 years, there was no possibility to contact each other.”
The Albanese half-brothers’ lives share some parallels.
“When it comes up in conversation, yes, I say (that he is Anthony’s brother) but I respect the privacy of both of us,” he said.
“Everyone knows me because I’m an installer of whitegoods.
“I’m a good man. Honest. “I’m a nervous type and he’s calm but we both work hard; our father worked hard, he was away travelling a lot.”
The last time they met in 2013, Ruggerio – who earns $2300 a month as an electrician and whitegoods installer – shared his s “dream” to set up p an export com- pany of southern rn Italian produce in Australia with his friend, Carlo Finnanino. nanino.
Ruggerio said Mr Albanese explained it would d be “complicated” and d fraught with red tape.
“We’re proud people, , we had hope, but it t crashed; we won’t ask k again,” he said.
“If I were him, I would d help – not because he’s my y brother, but isn’t he more e above (sic) the Queen?
“We hope he will come e soon to Barletta. Life is dif- ficult for both of us, but in n different ways.”
Mr Albanese was ap- proached for comment, but t did not reply by time of f publication.