Princess Rita Boncompagni-Ludovisi, Princess of Piombino

Princess Rita Boncompagni-Ludovisi, born Rita Carpenter, is an American real-estate executive, television journalist, and actress. She is the daughter of C. Hunt Carpenter, a millionaire who built his wealth through an insurance business and natural-gas investments. She earned a bachelor's degree in history, cum laude, from the University of Texas in 1971.

She began her career in politics in 1973 as the director of research for the Republican Party of Texas. In 1974, she served as a visiting lecturer at the Taft Political Institute at Trinity University. She became the opposition research director for the Republican National Committee in 1975 under chairwoman Mary Louise Smith. In 1977, she worked as a research associate at the Office of Technology Assessment, where she co-authored a report on the Food for Peace program presented to the Presidential Commission on World Food Hunger. In 1978, she was selected by the Washington Post Sunday magazine as one of four dynamic young women of Washington, D.C.

In September 1976, she married Democratic Congressman John Jenrette of South Carolina, whom she had met on Capitol Hill. Following his 1980 conviction in the Abscam investigation, she testified in his defense, appeared on the Phil Donahue Show, and later alerted authorities to $25,000 of Abscam funds found in his closet. The couple separated in January 1981 and divorced shortly after. She wrote two books: My Capitol Secrets, a 1981 account of her experiences as a Congressional spouse, and Conglomerate, a 1985 online romance novel. She also appeared on the cover and in pictorials for Playboy magazine in 1981 and 1984.

During the 1980s, she worked as a Clairol model and acted in plays, films, and television series. She won a Drama-Logue Critics Award in 1982 for her stage performance in The Philadelphia Story. Her television and film credits include Fantasy Island in 1982, Zombie Island Massacre in 1984, The Equalizer in 1988, and Dream On in 1992. After appearing on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous in 1986, she served as an on-air celebrity interviewer for Fox television’s A Current Affair beginning in 1989.

In 1994, she launched a career in real estate. In 1999, she settled a $6 million commission lawsuit against Simon Properties related to the $800 million sale of the General Motors Building to Donald Trump. She completed an Executive Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2003.

In 2003, she met Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi of Piombino while working as a real estate broker on his property, and they married on May 27, 2009. The couple renovated his 16th-century Roman residence, the Casino dell'Aurora, where she hosted public tours, charitable events, and promoted historical research. Following an inheritance dispute and a court order to auction the property, she was evicted from the estate in April 2023, subsequently moving to a friend's villa outside Rome.