Singer Andrea Bocelli Weds – The Love Story That Almost Wasn’t

Famous Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli exchanged vows Friday with long-time girlfriend Veronica Berti, who is also his manager and mother of their 2-year-old. The internet is abuzz with the news of their lovely, intimate ceremony in romantic Tuscany. But this is a love story that almost didn’t happen.

After being together for 12 years, Bocelli and Berti officially tied the knot on their daughter Virginia’s second birthday at the Sanctuary of Montenero in Italy. The beginning of their new life together was also planned to coincide with the beginning of spring.

Andrea Bocelli’s two sons from his prior marriage, Amos, 19, and Matteo, 16, were in attendance for their father’s wedding, and Veronica’s father gave her away to Andrea in this, her first marriage ceremony. She was stunning in her ivory silk Ermanno Scervino gown, embellished with Valenciennes lace, and her opera singer groom dazzled in his blue silk Corneliani suit.

This day has long been awaited. After their long courtship, and the birth of their baby in 2012, Bocelli told reporters,”Naturally, when two people feel like we do, they want to make it a permanent arrangement,” And so they have.

But their story would never have happened had Andrea Bocelli’s mother listened to the advice of her doctors when she was pregnant with Andrea. In 2010, Bocelli interrupted a performance he was doing to tell “a little story” while he played on the piano:

“A young pregnant wife has been hospitalized for a simple attack of appendicitis. The doctors had to apply some ice on her stomach and when the treatments ended, the doctors suggested that she abort her child. They told her it was the best solution because the baby would be born with some disability. But the young brave wife decided not to abort, and the child was born.

“That woman was my mother, and I was the child. Maybe I’m partisan, but I can say that it was the right choice and I hope that this could encourage many mothers who sometimes might find themselves in difficult situations but want to save the life of their baby.”

Even though abortion was not yet legal in Italy where Andrea Bocelli was born in 1958, there were some doctors who would still do them. Today, it is quite common for babies diagnosed prenatally with disabilities to be aborted. Andrea Bocelli was indeed born with a disability. He was born partially blind from congenital glaucoma. A football injury at age 12 led to Andrea’s complete blindness.

Despite his blindness, Bocelli is grateful for his life and praises his mother for what he calls “her brave choice.” His journey has taken him all over the world to share his angelic voice. Once an agnostic, he converted to the Catholic faith after his study of the works of Leo Tolstoy persuaded Bocelli “that life was not the result of pure chance but had a meaning and purpose,” according to The Daily Mail.

Bocelli’s music is unlike any other, and his passion for life comes through in everything he sings. And he almost wasn’t. What an incredible gift the world would have missed had Andrea Bocelli not been born! And the love story celebrated in the weekend’s wedding between Veronica Berti and Andrea Bocelli would not have been orchestrated. Congratulations!