Fashion designer Roberto Cavalli, 82, becomes a dad for the 6th time

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By Kim Novak

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Fashion designer Roberto Cavalli has become a father for the sixth time at the age of 82 with his 38-year-old girlfriend Sandra Nilsson.

The Italian designer, reportedly worth $500 million, already has five children from two previous marriages and welcomed a son called Giorgio recently.

He revealed the happy news during an interview with Italian gossip magazine Novella 2000 via Daily Mail, telling them: "Sandra is doing fine, the baby, who was born a week ago right here in Florence, is beautiful and it was really emotional to see him right after he was born."

The couple chose their baby name with a sweet meaning - naming him after Roberto's father Giorgio, who was by Nazis at the end of World War Two.

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Cavalli in 2010. Credit: Allstar Picture Library Ltd / Alamy

He explained: "His name is Giorgio, like his grandfather, my father... whom the Nazis shot in the Cavriglia massacre when I was four years old."

Roberto and his Swedish former playmate girlfriend have been together since 2014, and he shares children Tommaso and Cristina with his first wife Silvanella Giannoni, who he married in 1964 and divorced 10 years later.

His second marriage was to Austrian fashion designer Eva Maria Duringer who he shares three children, Robert, Rachele, and Daniele with. The couple married in 1980 and divorced in 2010.

The name of his youngest child is extra poignant as Roberto has previously opened up about his difficult childhood, becoming mute until he was 18 due to the stress of his father's killing.

He explained: "I didn't have an easy childhood. My father was just by the Germans in July 1944, in a raid on Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni.

"He was a surveyor, he worked for a mine in the Valdarno... I didn't speak until 18. But life has been kind to me (and I have been) rewarded... for everything."

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Sandra, seen in 2008, has been with Roberto since 2014. Credit: WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy

Roberto and Sandra have been together since 2014, having been first spotted together in 2010 after his split from his second wife.

The fashion designer bought her the £2.2 million ($2.6 million) private island Stora Rullingen, 50 miles east of Stockholm, in her home country of Sweden.

The island comes with a four-bedroom villa, hunting lodge, pool, and golf course as well as the remains of a Viking hill fort.

Sandra has been modeling since the age of 14 after being discovered by an agent while on holiday with her family in Paris.

She graduated in nursing with the Swedish equivalent to an A-level and took on modeling work while also working as a personal assistant.

The model competed in several beauty contests as well as Scandinavia’s Top Model and Swedish Miss Hawaiian Tropic, before becoming Playboy magazine’s Playmate of the Month in January 2008.

Featured image credit: WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy