Sophia Loren Has Come Clean About Her Greatest Romantic Regret

If you were told to name a screen icon from the golden age of Hollywood cinema, who would you select? Audrey Hepburn, perhaps? Gregory Peck? Marilyn Monroe? Bette Davis? Marlon Brando? There’s no denying that list includes some truly stellar names. But, undoubtedly, they are all icons in whose company Loren well and truly belongs.

Despite being well into her ninth decade, Loren’s famed glamor and vivaciousness remains undimmed. Incredibly, she is still making movies: 2020 has seen the release of Netflix film The Life Ahead. The actor now has nearly 100 official credits to her name in what has been a long and distinguished career in the notoriously fickle movie business.

For some, Loren’s personal life has been every inch the match of her stellar career in terms of perceived glamor. But only in recently released memoirs has Loren decided to shed a little more light on events behind the camera, including a now-legendary affair with another screen icon. And in an even more recent interview, Loren has also admitted her one major romantic regret. It is not what most would guess at.

But who is Sophia Loren? Most will know the name, but very few the details. Originally named Sofia Villani Scicolone, the future actor was born out of wedlock in Pozzuoli, a small town just outside of Naples in the south of Italy. Her mother – Romilda Villani – was the mistress of one Riccardo Scicolone. Yet Scicolone – whose name Loren bore – had no intention of leaving his wife, despite the fact he went on to have two children with Romilda. Loren’s younger sister Maria was not even granted the benefit of Scicolone’s name.