2. Like Eva Braun, Clara Petacci died with her lover, Mussolini. However, she didn’t have a choice between life or death.
Clara Petacci first became Mussolini’s lover when she was 19 and Mussolini was 48. The pair separated for two years and reunited in 1936 when Clara became the dictator’s permanent mistress. Clara received private apartments, bodyguards and a chauffeur. Mussolini was no more faithful to her than he was to his wife, and other women visited him daily. But Clara was his closest confidant and “amore” — in death as well as life. Clara may have chosen to stay with Mussolini after his downfall in April 1945. However, she had little choice but to die with him as Italian partisans captured and shot the pair soon after. Clara’s body was then hung upside down on public display, next to her lover.