The Italian deputy Prime Minister's TV star girlfriend has announced she is breaking up with him by posting a picture of the former couple naked in bed together on Instagram.

Italy's real-life soap opera reached its conclusion when television star Elisa Isoardi ended her three year relationship with Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.

Isoardi, 35, a former model, who hosts the Italian version of Ready Steady Cook, posted a picture of herself awake while Salvini appeared to be sleeping on her shoulder.

Her chest was covered by a white towel. His was not.

Isoardi, 35, a former model, who hosts the Italian version of Ready Steady Cook, posted a picture of herself awake while Salvini appeared to be sleeping on her shoulder

Below the picture of the snoozing 45-year-old Salvini and the smiling, wide-eyed Isoardi were the words:

'It's not what we gave each other that I will miss but what we still could have given each other.

'With enormous respect for the true love that was, thank you, Matteo.'

For the past three years that they were together, Salvini and Isoardi were often on the covers of Italian gossip magazines as paparazzi tracked them from the canals of Venice to the beaches of Mediterranean islands.

Deputy PM Salvini, pictured on TV show Viva L'Italia in October 2018, is facing a challenging time after Brussels rejected Italy's budget

Salvini, who is also interior minister and the leader of the anti-immigrant League party, was on a flight to Ghana when Isoardi told the world it was over.

Last Friday, a poll showed that most Italians viewed Salvini as the real head of government, with just one in six casting Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in that role.

The setback comes at a difficult time for Salvini after EU officials in Brussels sent Rome a letter rejecting Italy's budget.

The government still have a week to provide a revised budget, but a defiant Salvini previously said: 'No little letter will make us back down. Italy will never kneel again.'