Colin Firth, wife reach settlement with ex accused of stalking

July 5 (UPI) -- Actor Colin Firth and his wife, Livia Giuggioli, have reached a settlement with Marco Brancaccia, who they accused of stalking Giuggioli after their extramarital relationship.

Firth and Giuggioli settled with Brancaccia, an Italian journalist, out of court. Giuggioli became involved with Brancaccia while she was separated from Firth in 2015 and 2016 before the married pair reconciled.

"In the best interests of their families, the parties have agreed a private settlement," lawyers from both parties said in a statement obtained by People magazine. "Therefore the parties have asked the court for a postponement of the preliminary hearing in order to formalize the agreement. From this point on, this agreement precludes any further public statement by any of the parties about this matter."

Brancaccia has denied the stalking claims and said they were made up to hide his relationship with Giuggioli. "We were romantically involved. She wanted to leave Colin for me," he previously said.

"My 'stalking' consisted of two messages via WhatsApp after she ended our relationship in June 2016, and an email," he continued. "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 of love, photos and videos, even a diary."

Firth, 57, and Giuggioli, 48, were married in 1997 and share two sons together, Luca, 16, and Matteo, 15.