Alamy
While spending the festive season with her two children, it is likely that, on December 25, Chiara Ferragni’s thoughts will drift to whether or not she will be celebrating with them next year.
The Italian influencer could be behind bars as she faces the possibility of serving up to 20 months in prison for fraud.
In 2023, the blogger-turned-social media star was living the high life as she commanded up to an estimated $150,000 per post. But it all came crashing down when the Italian Competition Authority suspected her of misleading the public and ripping off a charity.
“We have always acted in good faith, no-one profited from this,” the 38-year-old told reporters outside a Milan courthouse on November 25 as she attended a pre-trial hearing. “I am confident, I cannot say more.”
Who is Chiara Ferragni?
Dubbed “the Italian Kim Kardashian”, Chiara made a fortune working as an ambassador with brands like Gucci, Versace and Lancôme. At its peak, her company was worth an estimated $130 million.
Starting off with her blog, The Blonde Salad, in 2009 while she was studying law, Ferragni made a name for herself writing about beauty, fashion and lifestyle.
It became so successful that she was able to drop out of school to focus on it full-time.
When she moved to social media, she amassed more than 28 million followers by sharing every aspect of her personal life, including dating and motherhood.
With her profile extending far beyond her own grid, her 2018 wedding to rapper Federico Leonardo “Fedez” Lucia appeared in US Vogue.
Their son, Leone, 7, and 4-year-old daughter, Vittoria, quickly became firm fixtures on her platforms, and the family was soon starring in its own docuseries, The Ferragnez.
“I don’t care about having that much privacy,” she said in a YouTube video. “I love sharing, it’s a good feeling.”
What caused the downfall of Chiara Ferragni?
A collaboration in 2022 saw Chiara promote pandoro Christmas cakes branded with her name and with her signature pink appearing on the packaging from Italian food company Balocco, which was fundraising for sick kids.
The $16 price tag was more than double what the cake would ordinarily cost.
Balocco made a single donation of just under $90,000 to the Regina Margherita Children’s Hospital in Turin months ahead of the promotion, while Chiara pocketed
a fee of around $1.75 million.
A year later, Chiara and Balocco were slapped with sanctions that argued her messaging made it seem like each individual sale from the pandoro collaboration would go towards the hospital, instead of just the one-off payment.
Italy’s competition watchdog gave her a $1.9 million fine in December 2023.
“I realise I have made a communications error… my error, in good faith, was to link, via communications, a commercial activity with a charity one,” Chiara said as she choked back tears in a video shared to Instagram to apologise to her followers.
She further pledged to donate $1.75 million to the hospital, while labelling her fine as “disproportionate and unjust” and vowing to fight it.
Similar allegations arose over the sale of Easter eggs in 2021. The backlash was swift, with brand work drying up as many former fans hit unfollow.
Even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, weighed in.
“The real models to follow are not the influencers who make a lot of money by wearing clothes and showing bags … or even promoting expensive cakes that make people believe they are charitable,” Meloni said during a speech in December 2024.
What happened between Fedez and Chiara Ferragni?
The pandoro scandal further took a toll on her personal life, with Fedez and Chiara splitting in February 2024.
“It was two and a half difficult months in which I found myself at the centre of a wave of hatred,” she told website Class.
“It’s always thought that I’m a strategist, that my husband and I are doing this for attention, but that’s not the case, unfortunately it’s not a strategy. I would like it to be.”
Proceedings are currently ongoing, with Ferragni facing aggravated fraud charges, for which prosecutors are asking for her to serve a 20-month prison term if she is found guilty, they confirmed at the pre-trial hearing.
A verdict is expected in January.
“Her innocence will come to light,” Chiara’s lawyer, Marcello Bana, said.
