Romina Power & Al Bano: The disappearance of daughter Ylenia changed everything

Romina Power
Is your luck coming back now?

Many girls wanted to be like Romina: fairy-like. Many boys wanted Romina as a girlfriend and of course thought they were much nicer than the guy with glasses at their side who wore heels to hide the fact that he was a few centimeters shorter.

At first glance they fit Romina Power and Al Bano have never been together. Not the second either, because they come from different worlds. And yet in the 1980s they were considered a dream couple around the world – musically with songs like “Felicità” or “Semper semper”, privately with a lot of Amore and four Bambini. “We were extremely lucky,” says Al Bano, looking back.

Romina Power: “I don’t feel any anger anymore, at anyone”

Four decades after the first hits and, surprisingly, a good 20 years after the War of the Roses separation, the two are now carefully approaching each other emotionally again. Of all things, Romina Power’s mother Linda Christian’s serious cancer illness indirectly paved the way. In her novel “I’ll Take You by the Hand”, Romina describes touchingly but also humorously how a daughter in the USA takes care of her mother, with whom she has a difficult relationship, for years until the end. Only then does the mother show a little affection. Romina Power experienced it the same way. She was always spiritually interested, and her late experience with her mother solidified this: “Buddhism has transformed me. I no longer feel anger, at anyone.”

Romina, like her husband Al Bano, would have needed comfort for the soul when a family tragedy occurred in 1994: her daughter Ylenia disappeared at the age of 23 during a trip to the USA. She left the hotel in New Orleans and has not been seen since. At that time, desperation destroyed the ideal “Felicità” world. Al Bano and Romina suddenly make massive accusations against each other. He suspects that Ylenia drowned in the Mississippi while intoxicated – that Romina introduced her to drugs. Romina, in turn, calls Al Bano a tyrant in the family and marriage. Because of his jealousy, she had to burn letters from an ex-boyfriend in front of him.

Because of this stroke of fate, her marriage failed

Romina Power interprets Ylenia’s disappearance as a kidnapping. She doesn’t give up hope of seeing her eldest daughter again, describes the case in TV search programs in several countries, and in Germany relies on possible clues through “file number XY … unsolved”. She also questions fortune tellers. Everything remains inconclusive. Al Bano seeks salvation in a different way: in 2014, he had Ylenia declared dead by a court in Brindisi. For him, this is something like a symbolic end to the suffering.

He comes from this area in southern Italy – a farmer’s son who has a strikingly beautiful voice. He wants to make something out of it. In the 1960s, Al Bano goes to Rome, makes a living as a waiter, sings on the side and accidentally becomes a superstar Adriano Celentano discovered. Al Bano soon starts appearing in musical films and meets Romina.
Her mother had decided that she would be in front of the camera at the age of 14, often wearing little. As cold as she is towards her daughter, she is ambitious in pushing her into the spotlight. Unlike Romina’s father Tyrone Power, who died in 1958, her mother never made it into Hollywood’s top league as an actress. Young and innocent, Romina is now Lolita fodder for wicked B movies in Italy. The mother encourages this – unthinkable today.

A fan brings Al Bano and Romina back together in 2013

How different is Al Bano, who is also very ambitious but down-to-earth! He invests his fees as a singer and actor in his winery. The young lovers married in 1970. Romina was 18, Al Bano was 27. Ylenia was born in the same year. A millionaire fan of the duo is responsible for the new beginning of Al Bano and Romina Power after the long radio silence – they divorced in 1999. In 2013, for Al Bano’s 70th birthday, he organized a concert with Italian stars. Would Al Bano be happy if Romina also received an invitation? “She will never say yes!” fears Al Bano. He is wrong. Romina agrees, albeit with a little wink: she doesn’t have anything better to do that day anyway.

The two met musically ten years ago and have been performing together occasionally since then, soon in Australia in the autumn. Before Al Bano’s solo concerts, who, unlike Romina, always sang, social media comments often read: “Please with Romina! You belong together!” There is another woman, a TV presenter almost 30 years his junior, with whom Al Bano has two children. But Romina moved from her escape point in the USA back to Italy, close to him.

“Happiness is going a long way”

On the talk sofa of a ZDF show, the audience was able to witness a spontaneous dialogue between the two. He: “I’m a good cook.” She: “I can cook well too.” He: “You? My God!” – he crosses himself. Her: “Ever since I left you, I’ve been cooking wonderfully.” Heartwarming banter like an old married couple. As it says in “Felicità”: “Happiness is going a long way.”

Gala