You can only answer questions about yourself when you’re at ease. I needed to be clear about what I wanted. I needed the distance to help me see things with a balance. At the time, the press was just an intrusion.’’As she gives her first interview ever in India to The Indian Express and recounts her separation from celebrity husband Arun Nayar — 10 days after which later she discovered he was dating British actress Elizabeth Hurley — Valentina Pedroni (35) has clearly laid some demons to rest.‘‘It was very hard at the beginning, but I’m so much better now,’’ says the woman relentlessly pursued by the media. ‘‘It’s not easy being single again after such a long time — to represent yourself in society and to yourself as a single person.’’It’s been two-and-a-half years since she left Mumbai businessman Nayar, now known to the world — and pursued across it by the tabloids — as Hurley’s beau.Pedroni arrived here on Tuesday for her divorce hearing at the Bandra family court.Now, as she settles down to lunch at the upmarket flat of friends Priya and Bijoy Jain, Pedroni is happy on finding that some Parsi friends have sent her some Sali Boti, chicken curry sprinkled with potato slivers. ‘‘I love Parsi food and this is my absolute favorite dish,’’ she says.Despite the trauma of divorce — Nayar accused her of ‘‘emotional torture’’, saying she constantly made financial demands and refused to bear children — Pedroni is reveling in her eighth visit to India.‘‘I have many good friends here,’’ she says, as she counts the dinners and lunches she’s planned with them until she leaves for Italy next Monday. ‘‘But I’ll be back in three-four months,’’ she adds.‘‘I’m grateful to Arun for all the years I’ve spent in India. I think this is home for me,’’ she ruminates. ‘‘I’m part Italian and there’s a little bit of an Indian in me too — a blonde, blue-eyed India.’’In the last few years, she has also travelled to Dharamsala and Rishikesh. ‘‘I miss India — the curries and spices, and the friendliness of the people.’’ The 35-year-old Pedroni and two of her Indian friends run an embroidery factory that supplies to European fashion labels. Then there’s her family real-estate business. ‘‘I’m very busy, I have no time to socialise,’’ she jokes.She’s got Mumbai’s top restaurants, including Royal China and Indigo, on her itinerary. And a spot of shopping for some kurtas from friend Priya Ailawadi’s fashion boutique, The Oak Tree.‘‘I don’t want to be left out,’’ she says, ‘‘on anything that happens in Mumbai.’’Pedroni says there is some confusion about her divorce. ‘‘I’m an Italian citizen and Arun is a British citizen. Plus, we had an Indian wedding,’’ she says. ‘‘We need to decide which country’s jurisdiction works in the most balanced way.’’And how long before she and Nayar are free? ‘‘I have absolutely no idea.’’
