Marie José of Belgium Claretta Petacci, claimed in her diary that in 1937 the then princess and wife of the heir to the throne tried and failed to seduce the dictator at a beach resort near Rome. However, Mussolini's son, Romano, claims that the princess and dictator entered into a sexual relationship. In 1943, the Crown Princess involved herself in vain attempts to arrange a separate peace treaty between Italy and the United States; her interlocutor from the Vatican was Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, a senior diplomat who later became Pope Paul VI. Her attempts were not sponsored by the king and Umberto was
Magda Fontanges for life, as well as being exiled her from Paris and any other "large French town" for 20 years. Fontanges was quoted as saying upon the conclusion of the trial: My only regret is that I wasn't hanged with the Duce instead of his last mistress, Clara Petacci. Fontanges was then imprisoned in the women's prison in Mauzac from 1948 to 1952. Due to health reasons, in 1952 she is released to house arrest in Melun, however Fontanges moved to Paris with the intention of managing a bar, and was arrested again for not respecting the terms of her parole.