Francesca Fagnani (born 25 November 1976) is an Italian journalist, writer and television presenter. She is known as the host of the Italian television interview series '' Belve'' and its

spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...

, ''Belve Crime''.

Early life

Francesca Fagnani was born in Rome, Italy, on 25 November 1976. She has a

fraternal twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two e ...

sister. Fagnani graduated from the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

with a degree in modern literature. She obtained a doctorate in

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, and was in New York City to witness the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

in 2001.

Career

Fagnani subsequently volunteered to work at

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

's New York office, where she did an

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and g ...

with journalist before returning to Italy. In Rome, she worked with journalist , before making her debut as an investigative journalist on

Michele Santoro Michele Santoro (born 2 July 1951) is an Italian journalist, television host and presenter. He also served till October 2005 as Member of the European Parliament for Southern Italy with the United in the Olive Tree list, part of the Socialis ...

's television program ''

AnnoZero ''AnnoZero'' was an Italian television talk show hosted by Italian journalist Michele Santoro and was broadcast on Rai 2 from 2006 to 2011. Beatrice Borromeo was a collaborator on this show from 2006 to 2008, and Francesca Fagnani served as ...

'' in 2006. She stayed there until 2010. From 2013 to 2020, Fagnani wrote for ''

Il Fatto Quotidiano (English: "The Daily Fact") is an Italian daily newspaper owned by Editoriale Il Fatto S.p.A. and published in Rome. It was founded on 23 September 2009 and was edited by until 2015, when Marco Travaglio became the editor. The three deputy edi ...

'' and ''

La Repubblica (; English: "the Republic") is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper with an average circulation of 151,309 copies in May 2023. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and l ...

'' , and focused mainly on covering

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

. Since March 2018, she has been the host of the Italian television interview series '' Belve'', which consists of face-to-face interviews between Fagnani and "beasts", strong personalities from the world of entertainment, politics or news. ''Belve Crime'', a

series hosted by Fagnani and focused on figures from crime news, debuted in June 2025. Fagnani co-hosted the

Sanremo Music Festival 2023 The Sanremo Music Festival 2023 (), officially the 73rd Italian Song Festival (), was the 73rd edition of the annual Sanremo Music Festival, a television song contest held in the Teatro Ariston of Sanremo, organised and broadcast by (RAI). The ...

Personal life

Since 2013, Fagnani has been romantically linked to journalist

Enrico Mentana Enrico Mentana (born 15 January 1955) is an Italian journalist and television presenter. He founded the Italian news programme '' TG5'' and directed it from 1992 to 2004. In 2005, as Canale 5's editorial director, he conceived and curated th ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fagnani, Francesca 21st-century Italian journalists 21st-century Italian women journalists 1976 births Italian television presenters Italian women television presenters Journalists from Rome Living people New York University alumni Sapienza University of Rome alumni