The widow of controversial property developer Renato Cervo has described her husband as a loving man capable of having "bloody Italian temper tantrums" which led to him being misunderstood.
Sitting in her Red Hill home, Margaret Cervo disagreed with comments published in The Canberra Times that her husband was difficult and burned bridges.
"He was wonderful, he took care of me so well," she said.
"He worked hard, he would go real early in the morning to the construction site and get everything ready for the boys who were going to come to work on the site."
Mr Cervo became well known in Canberra through his various developments over the decades, some of which put him in conflict with residents due to delays in openings.
A shopping centre developed by Mr Cervo in Coombs was the most recent, left empty for nearly four years. Mrs Cervo said it was the worst one.
"There were many, many things said about that, that was not true. [Mr Cervo] turned in plan after plan to the government and they always seem to find something wrong," she said.
Mrs Cervo said, during the Coombs shop drama, Mr Cervo would sometimes have what she described as "bloody Italian temper tantrums".
"When he has those I just leave the room and let him, but he's over them in no time practically and he doesn't hold a grudge, he never, never held a grudge against anybody," she said.
"I remember going out [to Coombs shops] one day and people will come out there and look at him ... [but] he built everything with his heart."
The couple met at the Forrest-based Italian Club in October 1969 and only 10 months later, they were married in August 1970.
Mrs Cervo, who was originally from East Atlanta in the United States, said she worked as a typist for the Pentagon before coming to Canberra to work as a receptionist at the United States Embassy.
"I worked there for a while and I bet they thought I was a pure hick," she said.
Mrs Cervo confirmed Mr Cervo arrived in Australia at about age 19 from Italy and said he built his property empire through pure hard work.
"He took any kind of job that he could take because the Australians were so hateful to him ... he said if him and the boys go into a bar after work to sort of relax a bit [Australians] wouldn't come anywhere near them," she said.
Mr and Mrs Cervo were married for 52 years.
The church where they were married, St Christopher's Cathedral in Forrest, was also the same where Mr Cervo's funeral was held.
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