Maria Teresa Ruta (born April 23, 1960) is an Italian showgirl and television presenter.
Biography[]
Born in Turin, she is the niece of the homonyomous Italian television announcer Maria Teresa Ruta. In 1977, aged seventeen, she won the popular Miss Muretto beauty contest and began acting in theatre.
In 1981, she debuted on national TV as a showgirl for the RAI working in shows such as Signorine grandi firme (Big Design Ladies) with Carmen Russo later she became very famous as a sportscaster and presented the famous show La Domenica Sportiva (Sports Sunday) alongside Sandro Ciotti from 1986 to 1991. Moreover, from 1989 to 1994 she presented the popular children's song competition Zecchino d'Oro (Gold Sequin) alongside Cino Tortorella. In 1992, 1993 & 1997 she was the Italian presenter for Jeux sans frontieres (Games Without Borders). From 1994 to 1996 she presented the most popular Italian morning show Unomattina (One Morning) and the game show Sala Giochi (Game Room).
In 2000, together with Antonella Clerici and Gianfranco Funari, she lead the Mediaset talk show A tu per tu (Face to Face) but the broadcast had low ratings and it was cancelled after only one season. From the following September, she replaced Iva Zanicchi as presenter of the game show OK, Il Prezzo è Giusto! (OK, The Price is Right!), the Italian version of The Price is Right from 2000 until 2001.
In 2004, she participated as a contestant in the first edition of the reality show L'lsola dei Famosi (The Island of the Famous), finishing in sixth place. In September 2018, she took part with Patrizia Rossetti in the seventh season of Pechino Express (Beijing Express) the Italian version of the reality show Peking Express airing on Rai 2 and hosted by Costantino della Gherardesca and in the end the couple won the competition. In September 2020, she participated as a contestant in her third reality show Grande Fratello VIP (Big Brother VIP), the Italian version of Celebrity Big Brother where she was evicted on February 12, 2021 after spending 147 days in the house.
Personal Life[]
In 1987, she married the journalist Amedeo Goria with whom she had two children: Guendalina "Guendalina" Goria and Gianamedeo Goria. The couple separated in 1999 and divorced in 2004. Since 2006, she's been romantically linked to the physiotherapist Roberto Zappulla with whom she married in 2015.
She considers herself to be Roman Catholic.