Colin Firth's wife has dropped the stalking allegations she made against her ex-lover.
Livia Giuggiolo and Colin Firth
Livia Giuggiolo - who married the actor in 1997 and has two children Luca, 17, and Matteo, 14, with him - accused Italian journalist Marco Brancaccia of bombarding her with "threatening phone calls and text messages" in March after she called off their year-long affair in 2016 in order to rekindle with the 'Bridget Jones's Diary' star.
Marco - who was a family friend of the Firths - denied he was stalking the Italian film producer and has she claimed wanted to leave Colin for good to be with him.
However, in an unexpected turn of events, the court case in Rome on Wednesday (04.07.18) was halted by a last-minute deal in order to protect their private lives.
In a joint statement, the couple's lawyers told The Sun Online: "In the best interests of their families, the parties have agreed a private settlement.
"The parties have asked the court for a postponement of the preliminary hearing in order to formalise the agreement. This agreement precludes any further public statement by any of the parties about this matter."
Colin and Livia were forced to announce that they had called time on their marriage briefly in 2015 after it became known that she had reported her former flame to the police for stalking after she decided to end their passionate fling once and for all.
The couple's representative said in a statement at the time: "A few years ago Colin and Livia privately made the decision to separate.
"During that time Livia briefly became involved with former friend Mr Brancaccia. The Firths have since reunited. Subsequently, Mr Brancaccia carried out a frightening campaign of harassment over several months, much of which is documented. For obvious reasons, the Firths have never had any desire to make this matter public."
However, Marco instantly shot down the allegations and claimed he's only contacted the family three times since Livia, 48, ended their secret relationship in 2016.
He explained: "My 'stalking' consisted of two messages via WhatsApp after she ended our relationship in June 2016, and an email.
"I wrote an email to Colin about my relationship with Livia, which I now regret sending, and she filed a complaint against me for stalking out of fear that I could go public with what she had revealed to me about her marriage and work.
"In a year she sent me hundreds of messages, photos and videos, even a diary."
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