| Alessandro Cecchi Paone | |
| Birth Name: | Alessandro Cecchi Paone |
| Birth Date: | 16 November 1961 |
| Birth Place: | Rome, Italy |
| Alma Mater: | Sapienza University of Rome |
| Occupation: | Presenter, journalist, university professor |
| Party: | None |
| Otherparty: | PRI (2009–2014) FI (2014) |
Alessandro Cecchi Paone (born 16 September 1961) is an Italian television presenter, journalist, radio and television writer, and politician.
Born in Rome, Cecchi Paone graduated in Political Science at the Sapienza University of Rome. He started his television career while still a teenager, hosting from 1977 to 1980 the RAI program Trenta minuti giovani.[1]
In the 1980s, Cecchi Paone collaborated as writer to several Rai Radio 3 journalistic and cultural programs and to several documentaries and hosted several shows. In 1991, he became a newscaster of TG5, and after a few months also of TG2.[1] [2] For a few years, he was a popular personality of Rai 2, where he hosted some successful shows such as In famiglia and La cronaca in diretta. In 1996, Cecchi Paone returned to Mediaset, where in 1997 he launched his most successful work, the science TV show La Macchina del Tempo, which lasted until 2006 and also generated a satellite thematic channel, .[1] In 2016, he hosted the daily newscast TG4.[3]
During his career, Paone took part in several reality shows, notably three editions of L'isola dei famosi and the third season of Grande Fratello VIP.[4] [5] A member of the Italian Republican Party (PRI), Cecchi Paone ran in the 2004 and 2014 European Parliament elections with Forza Italia but was not elected.[6] On 29 April 2021, he was appointed advisor to the 7th Commission of Culture on Digital Citizenship the Senate of the Republic.[7] [8]
Cecchi Paone was married to Cristina Navarro, to whom he lated divorced. In 2004, he came out as a homosexual.[9] In 2023, Cecchi Paone expressed his desire for same-sex adoption, which is not legal in Italy,[10] with his partner Simone Antolini, a legal sciences student 38 years his junior.[11]