Carlo Ponti had been admitted to hospital about 10 days ago for pulmonary complications, according to a family statement.
"He died overnight," Sophia Loren's niece Alessandra Mussolini said. "It was a peaceful death, there was not a particular problem.
"His wife and children were with him. Sophia has always been with him throughout."
Carlo Ponti married Sophia Loren in 1957 when she was only 22 but the marriage was later annulled, although the couple remarried in 1966 and had two sons, Carlo Ponti Jr, music director of the San Bernardino Symphony, and film director Edoardo Ponti.
