For decades, former racer and world motorcycling legend Valentino Rossi and his father, Graziano Rossi, were inseparable on and off the circuit. Throughout his career, the champion wore the iconic number 46 on his motorcycles, the same one his father raced with. But what was once a relationship of affection, complicity and closeness, forged between engines, training, championships, triumphs and defeats, has been transformed into a dispute that has reached the Italian courts. Father and son shared businesses and made their fortune together, in the heat of motorcycling, with Valentino winning nine world titles. Now that heritage is at the center of their confrontation.
The MotoGP champion has recently filed a complaint against Ambra Arpino, his father’s partner, for alleged misuse of an incapable person. Rossi accuses the 54-year-old woman, with whom his father has had a relationship for a decade, of having taken money from his assets by taking advantage of his alleged fragility; Graziano is 71 years old. Specifically, the complaint speaks of the withdrawal of nearly 200,000 euros from the father’s bank account. Valentino, 46, maintains that his father is in a vulnerable condition that prevents him from managing his assets autonomously, but Graziano flatly denies this.
This latest episode of the complaint has intensified the media war that broke out some time ago. It is part of an intricate legal battle that dates back to 2024, when Valentino requested to become his father’s legal administrator and a court granted it. At that time, the former pilot alleged, using medical expertise, that Graziano suffered from the beginning of Alzheimer’s and, therefore, had difficulty taking care of himself. The following year, Graziano asked his son to revoke his legal guardianship, to which the motorcycling champion refused. The father went to court again and a judge then agreed with him, considering that he had “full capacity to understand and decide,” after examining a new medical report that concluded that the initial diagnosis of Alzheimer’s was erroneous. Shortly after, Valentino decided not to challenge the court decision and chose to denounce his father’s partner. For the moment, the Italian media indicate that the prosecutor’s office, which has commissioned a new evaluation of Graziano, considers that the man is not in a particularly vulnerable condition, as deduced from the most recent medical reports.
Valentino Rossi and his entourage insist that Graziano and Ambra have a toxic relationship and claim that she has isolated him from his family and friends. The motorcycling champion himself has publicly exposed his version of the family war. “Money, in this story, has no importance, luckily for me and also for Graziano. I am only sad and worried about my father, whom I do not see or have news about,” he declared in an interview with the newspaper Il Corriere della Sera. He has also explained how the family relationship has suffered: “It is as if he no longer had a father. His romantic relationship has caused a total break with the family, and I do not understand why, since both I and my mother, Stefania, have always had a solid and important emotional relationship with Graziano. He has left us all aside, as if we were carriers of who knows what threat. An attitude that, if I think about my father, I cannot explain and that leads me to try to know how he is, what happened to get there. at this point.” The former pilot has clarified that he has always acted “out of affection” and “out of fear” that his father “is not well.”
The father has also offered his own version and has openly asked his son to withdraw the complaint against his partner, calling for family reconciliation. In an interview with the newspaper Il Resto del CarlinoGraziano has indicated that he expects “a gesture” from Velentino. “The relationships between us are less frequent. I’m waiting for something to happen that brings us closer again. There is a love story between my son and I, no woman can interrupt it. And I think that he, if he thinks about it for a moment, can take a step towards me,” she said.
He has also downplayed the legal issues and made it clear that he is willing to reconcile: “There are no insurmountable difficulties in this sense. If Valentino were willing to take a step towards me… he would also take a step towards Ambra, in short.” And he has defended his partner, whom he intends to marry. “Being with her is urgent for me. It’s something I want to do at all costs. No one in my family has ever supported me. The only person who has always cared about me has been Ambra. Yes, we have decided to get married, but we haven’t set the date yet. I will invite everyone and I hope they come to celebrate,” he says. Furthermore, he has defended that he does not have to justify the fact that he has decided to offer his partner money to pay the mortgage on his house, where he is often. Ambra Arpino, for her part, has also stated that Valentino Rossi was aware of the payments and that a part of his father’s money was given to him by himself when he was his father’s legal administrator.
The family conflict, far from remaining a confrontation between father and son, has been complicated by the participation of other members of the close environment who have added tension to an already complex story. Valentino’s mother and some ex-partners have taken sides, adding new disagreements and conflicting opinions on the issue, which is currently being debated in the courts and in the media. The former pilot’s mother, Stefania Palma, has harshly questioned the interests of Graziano’s current partner and has indicated that her influence would have contributed to the breakup with her children. “If Graziano had been a carpenter, she certainly wouldn’t be there,” he declared.
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