"60 Minutes" produced and televised a segment on this phenomenon a few years ago or maybe several years ago.
I saw that show. It had to be a few years ago. I stopped watching after they couldn't even bring up the shows they had done in the past on Saddam's nuke program.
The show about the Italian bachelor's had a name for them in Italian. It must have been Lesley Stahl who did the piece. The name sounded like 'mom-mown-ie'.
She interviewed mother's who do aspects of the son's domestic chores. Rather like a lifetime personal butler. They had regular jobs, money, cars, but the mother ironed perfectly all the clothes, etc. In fact it was her striving for perfection that an ordinary spouse could not replace.
Even men who had moved out brought their laundry to their mothers. The 'mom-mown-ie' of Italy seemed to be quite an accepted way of life.