Prince Emmanuel Filiberto of Savoy, grandson of Italy's last king, on Sunday admitted taking drugs and said his family saved him from slipping into a narcotic-addicted lifestyle, ANSA news agency reported.

"I took drugs, some of my best friends were killed by" these harmful substances, Emmanuel Filiberto said in an interview on Italian television.

"When you do it, you don't realise where it can lead you," he added, stressing that his life was never fully taken over by drugs but that he "associated with people who took drugs".

"I tried it, but what saved me was the great respect that I have for my family," he said, adding this attachment to his loved ones kept him from reaching the level of drug use "where you can really do yourself harm".

The prince has launched a political career and contested last year's Italian general election as the head of the "Values and Future" movement. But he won just 0.4 percent of the vote.

The male heirs of the erstwhile Italian royal family were sent into exile in 1946 as punishment for the collaboration of then monarch Victor Emmanuel III and Benito Mussolini's fascist regime.

The king had promoted the regime's racial laws in 1938.

The male members of the family were allowed back into Italy in 2003.

AFP

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