9. A family at war

Fiat starts to turn a corner, but the Agnelli hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons as the inheritance battle waged between the empire’s heir apparent – John Elkann – and his own mother intensifies. Plus, one family member goes off the rails and causes a very public scandal, and the mood in Italy starts to turn on the family as the business becomes more global.

The audio of this episode was updated on 28 October 2026 to better reflect John Elkann’s position on an ongoing legal dispute with his mother, and include a reference to John Elkann choosing to renounce his US dual citizenship.

Presenter: Sofia Bettiza
Series producer: Simon Tulett
Producer: Bob Howard
Fact-checkers: Adriana Urbano and Randa Darwish
Music: Thomas Ross Fitzsimons
Sound engineer: Richard Hannaford
Series editor: Matt Willis
With special thanks to Jennifer Clark, Michele Masneri, Rachel Sanderson, Andrea Colli, and, also, Octavia Woodward.
Senior commissioning producer: Sarah Green
Commissioning editor: Jon Manel

Inheritance is a BBC Long Form Audio production