Adriana and Christian Karembeu separate

It's official. What the French daily France Soir calls, "One of the most glamorous couples of French showbiz" are to separate.

Adriana Karembeu (screenshot from interview with Belgian daily La Dernière Heure/Les Sports in Feb 2011)

After almost 13 years of marriage the model Adriana Karembeu and her husband, the former French international football player Christian, are to split, according to an interview Adriana gave in Thursday's edition of the weekly magazine Paris Match.

The news doesn't exactly come as a surprise says France Soir, "Especially not to readers of celebrity magazines," as rumours had been circulating for some time that the Slovakian-born model was not happy with their lifestyle, her husband's hectic schedule and "the fact that they didn't appear to have a life together."

"I wanted to makes things clear," she told Paris Match.

"We have always been a very high-profile couple and in recent weeks I've been upset to see photographs of me with other men appearing in the press and speculation that I had a lover," she continued.

"The truth is I've never cheated on my husband but we haven't been together for a couple of months now."

While Adriana maintains in the interview that she had informed her husband about her decision to "go public" his version of how he found out is quite different.

Christian, a member of France's 1998 World Cup winning side has recently published a book (together with journalists Anne Pitoiset et Claudine Wéry) "Kanak" in which he recounts his childhood in New Caledonia and the story of his family.

He has been giving a series of interviews to promote the book but, "Had not alluded to the separation," Adriana told Paris Match, "Because he didn't know what to say. When I 'phoned him to tell him that I had granted you an interview, he seemed relieved."

But that wasn't quite the story Christian told on RTL radio on Wednesday.

"I think she's quite simply going to announce our separation," he said when asked for his reaction to details that had been leaked of the interview that was to appear in Paris Match the following day.

"I'm not in the habit of talking about my private life in public," he continued.

"But I didn't know about this interview when it happened, I was told about it afterwards."

Whatever the case their separation is official and marks the end of a relationship which began, as the French daily Aujourd'hui en France - Le Parisien says, "In the most romantic of manners aboard a Paris-Milan flight in 1996".

They were married in 1998.

Court allows couple to wed in spite of parents "Napoleonic law" bid to stop marriage

Here's a warning wealth word reading if you're a foreigner wanting to marry a French national.

Make sure you have the approval of your future in-laws because if they're not happy with the upcoming nuptials they might seek recourse in an archaic law preventing the marriage from going ahead.

"Not possible," you might be thinking, especially if both the prospective bride and groom are beyond the age of consent.

Wrong.

Image from Wikipedia, author - Musaromana

It can, and indeed did happen in November when the parents of the groom-to-be, Stéphane Sage, stepped in to prevent him from tying the knot with his future intended Man Sin Ma (known as Mandy) from Hong Kong.

The couple are both in their mid-20s but Page's parents objected to his choice of bride and resorted to a law dating from 1803 to stop the marriage from going ahead.

They succeeded and the ceremony was postponed while the couple went to court to have the legal objection overruled.

The problems for the couple came to a head in November just hours before they were due to be married in the town of Meylan in the southeastern French département of Isère.

The banns required by law had been removed from the town hall as Sage's parents, disapproving of the marriage as they reportedly thought Mandy was "only interested in gaining French nationality to be able to stay in the country" had successfully sought to have them withdrawn just as was their right under article 173 of the civil code.

It states that "The father and the mother, or by default the grandparents, may oppose the marriage of their children or descendants even if they've reached the age of majority."

Archaic and anachronistic perhaps, belonging as it does to Napoleonic times, but the parents were fully within their legal rights as it has never been repealed.

This week though the couple succeeded in having the decision overturned and a court ruled that they were free to marry as "There was no objective reason to justify the (parents') decision."

Sage's mother and father now have one month in which to appeal the ruling and, if what the 25-year-old told Agence France Presse is true, then both he and his fiancée are surely on tenterhooks waiting for their next move.

"At first they said Mandy only wanted to marry me to get papers," he told AFP.

"Now they're accusing her of being a spy for the Chinese government."

That's what happens when your prospective "in-laws from Hell" come from a country which has far too many laws on its books.

You have been warned.

French bride requests annulment moments after marriage

"I do" and then "I don't" barely 10 minutes later was very much the pattern of events for a newly-wed bride in France last weekend.

The wedding and almost immediate request for an annulment happened in the city of Tours in central France.

The evidently not-so-happy couple, both aged 25, were married in a civil ceremony at the city hall in front of the deputy mayor, François Lafourcade.

Nothing untoward seemed to mark the short ceremony, according to a report carried in the regional newspaper, La Nouvelle République, and Lafourcade said that everything appeared to proceed as expected.

Perhaps he should have known better.

"I had the feeling that something wasn't quite right, but everything seemed normal with nothing really missing; there were flowers, the rings, and the witnesses," he told the newspaper.

"I just posed the required questions and the bride answered 'yes' in a somewhat irritated," he continued.

"Afterwards the couple and their families left the room and I stayed behind with a couple of officials and just as I was getting ready to leave the bride returned and asked me to annul the whole thing on the spot."

So what had happened in such a short space of time to make the one half of the barely-wed couple change her mind?

Well according to some people present interviewed by the newspaper, once the families had made their way outside the building, the two mothers-in-law started arguing (no jokes please) and the tone escalated to such an extent that the police were called.

It was then that the young woman returned to deputy mayor to make her request, but was informed that she would have to make an official application to the public prosecutor if she really wanted the marriage to be annulled.

But there is perhaps more to the story than has appeared so far, as the journalist, Paul Wermus explained after digging a little deeper into what had happened for Laurent Ruquier, the host of an afternoon programme on national radio.

"The woman comes from the suburbs of Paris and the man is originally from Tunisia," said Wermus.

"All the signs are that it might have been an arranged marriage and the wife wasn't necessarily getting married of her own free will," he continued.

"The case is now with the public prosecutors office to determine whether there is in fact a case for annulment."

One of the grounds given in the French civil code for allowing a marriage to be declared invalid is if it can be proven that the "contract was entered into without the free consent of both spouses."

French woman marries her dead fiancé

Yes you read the headline correctly.

Out of France this past weekend comes the touching if somewhat unusual story of Magali Jaskiewicz and Jonathan Goerge.

The couple were married on Saturday afternoon in the village of Dommary-Baroncourt in the départment of in north-eastern France.

Nothing extraordinary in that perhaps except that after Jaskiewicz said "I do" in front of the mayor, Jonathan Goerge didn't - or rather couldn't.

He died last November in a road accident two months before the pair were due to wed.

Such a so-called "posthumous marriage" might be rare but it does happen from time-to-time and there are a dozen-or-so such weddings in France every year.

French law allows them to take place only if one of the future couple dies after all the official formalities have been completed to an extent that show "unequivocally the intention of both to marry."

The final decision as whether to grant permission for a posthumous marriage is at the discretion of the French president, and after all the necessary documents had been filed earlier this year, Nicolas Sarkozy finally gave his accord in September.

"Magali's case to marry posthumously was a strong one," said the mayor, Christophe Caput, who oversaw the ceremony and had been instrumental in assembling all the information necessary to be sent to Paris for official approval.

"They had been living together for several years, had two children and the wedding had already been arranged and the dress bought."

Not surprisingly perhaps the weekend's ceremony wasn't exactly a festive occasion, least of all for the bride.

"I'm not really in the mood for celebrating," she said afterwards.

"We'll go and drink a coffee and then I'll thank everyone who has supported me," she added, saying that she would also be putting the wedding bouquet on the grave of her husband.

Annulled non-virgin marriage "un-annulled" for the moment

An appeals court in the northern French town of Douai has decided to suspend the annulment of a marriage which a Moslem couple had requested because the wife had lied about being a virgin.

The case made national headlines here in France a few weeks ago when the story first broke and now it's back in the news again after the appeals court's decision to suspend the verdict.

It involves a man who suspected that his bride – also a Moslem – had lied about being a virgin before they were married in 2006.

His wife at first assured him she was “pure” but later revealed that she had indeed had sex before marriage. The wife returned to her family “in disgrace” and although she was initially reluctant to assent to her husband’s request to seek an annulment, she eventually agreed.

In April a judge in the northern French city of Lille granted the couple’s request for an annulment on the grounds that the man had been "mistaken about the essential qualities" of his wife-to-be. Such a term of course leaves the door wide open for a myriad of potential interpretations.

The media didn’t actually get wind of the story until the end of May but not surprisingly once it broke it created an uproar with many politicians, women’s rights campaigners and leading French Moslem figures denouncing the court's ruling as both a breach of a woman’s privacy and an offence – in legal terms – to the equality of men and women.

While the debate raged the French justice minister, Rachida Dati, seemed to say very little and do even less.

Dati - herself of North African origin and with an arranged and annulled marriage behind her - appeared almost paralysed by the furore that ensued. And it wasn't until her immediate boss, the prime minister François Fillon, stepped in that Dati did a volte face and asked the public prosecutors office to appeal the original ruling.

Fillon suggested that annulling a marriage on grounds of virginity was tantamount to taking France – a secular country - back in time and he didn’t want “people one day to be able to make virginity a constitutional element of marital consent."

In purely judicial terms there is now the seemingly ridiculous situation of the couple being "married" again even though the original annulment had been made with the agreement of both.

A final decision is expected in September and until then they are in marital limbo.

Should the court overturn the original annulment the only option left open to the couple would be the potentially lengthy and costly process of obtaining a divorce.

Dati does U-turn on virginity annulment marriage

The French justice minister, Rachida Dati, has once again shown that she has a less than a firm grasp of her job by doing a complete volte face in a case that has been making the headlines here in France over the past week.

On Monday Dati asked the public prosecutors office to appeal a court ruling, which had annulled a marriage because the wife had lied about being a virgin.

When the case first came to public attention last week, Dati refused to intervene (she actually supported the decision by the court). But a heated debate has since raged – largely fuelled by the media – and the justice minister (or is it the president Nicolas Sarkozy?) has now decided it’s time to act.

The case involves a man who suspected that his bride – also a Moslem – had lied about being a virgin before they were married in 2006.

His wife at first assured him she was “pure” but later revealed that she had indeed had sex before marriage. The wife returned to her family “in disgrace” and although she was initially reluctant to assent to her husband’s request to seek an annulment, she eventually agreed.

In April a judge in the northern French city of Lille granted the couple’s request for an annulment on the grounds that the man had been "mistaken about the essential qualities" of his wife-to-be. Such a term of course leaves the door wide open for a myriad of potential interpretations.

The media didn’t actually get wind of the story until last week but not surprisingly once it broke it created an uproar with many politicians, women’s rights campaigners and leading French Moslem figures denouncing the court's ruling as both a breach of a woman’s privacy and an offence – in legal terms – to the equality of men and women.

While the debate raged Dati appeared to say very little and do even less – until that is her immediate boss, the prime minister, François Fillon, stepped in.

Fillon suggested that annulling a marriage on grounds of virginity was tantamount to taking France – a secular country - back in time and he didn’t want “people one day to be able to make virginity a constitutional element of marital consent."

Dati’s hesitance in taking the decision to request an appeal is perhaps to a certain extent further proof - to put it kindly - of her political inexperience. Before she became justice minister last year Dati had never held office.

Critics – and there are many who accuse Dati of sheer incompetence – will be less generous in their assessment.

She has already raised the hackles of many in the legal profession by the manner in which she has tried to force through reforms to the judicial system. And Dati is often the target of much media ridicule, being portrayed as an overbearing boss. Since she took over at the justice ministry there have been a dozen resignations among her staff.

Dati has also come in for a fair amount of stick for her spending habits especially after she admitted that her department had spent over two thirds of its annual €200,000 entertainment budget in the first three months of this year.

Her delayed decision to act in this latest case – albeit a controversial one - will hardly have increased her political stock.

You’re fired

She might have dropped out of the headlines for the past few months, but France’s former almost-but-not-quite first lady, Cécilia Sarkozy, is back in the news once again.

Actually the press has returned to using her pre-Sarkozy and pre-Martin maiden name of Ciganer-Albéniz, in reporting gossip circulating that she’s about to follow her second better-half, Nicolas, up the aisle to make it third time lucky.

The story first “broke” in January in the daily national Le Parisien that Cécilia and the one for whom she turned down wedded Bling Bling bliss at the Elysée palace, French media hot shot Richard Attias, were due to tie the knot some time in March.

Attias issued a hasty denial in a formal statement that also threatened legal action if further reports appeared that “made any allusion to a forthcoming marriage.”

Public posturing perhaps from a private person trying to scotch any interest in what might or might not be in the pipeline, and about as successful as Sarkozy N was in keeping his whirlwind romance with his Carla off the front pages. It obviously requires time and effort to orchestrate a story so that it unfolds in the way the main protagonists wish.

Not surprisingly the rumours resurfaced at the beginning of March when the fashion house, Versace, spilled the proverbial beans. In a bout of self-praising backslapping it informed those who were interested, and probably many who were not, that the couple had chosen to tog themselves up in made-to-measure His ‘n Hers from its haute couture to celebrate their “happy occasion” slated in New York for the end of this month.

Clearly Ciganer-Albéniz was not amused by the betrayal of confidence and according to this weekend’s edition of Le Journal du Dimanche, somewhat belatedly “fired” the fashion house, preferring to look elsewhere for the right clobber.

Oh dear the trials and tribulations of being a don’t-wannabe public figure.

Admittedly both Ciganer-Albéniz and Attias have cast themselves as rather unwilling participants in the whole merry go round. But they cannot really be surprised by the level of interest in their impending whatever’s.

Their romance dates back to 2005 when Cécilia, on a “time out” from Sarkozy, split her time between Paris and New York. Photographs and an account of their lives even made it on to the pages of the weekly glossy, Paris Match, before the wayward wife half-heartedly returned to give her marriage a second bash just ahead of presidential campaigning.

Cécilia must be well used to the attention by now with two marriages and divorces to high profile husbands behind her, Sarkozy and the later French television entertainer, Jacques Martin.

And similarly Attias, as head honcho at the French media group Publicis, can be no stranger to the way a story unfolds once the news juggernaut has got wind of it.

Bring on the wedding bells and be done with it.

Knotted

Well he promised the media would only find out after the event, and so it turned out. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, must be as pleased as punch that he once again managed to scoop the press as he took the former model-turned singer, Carla Bruni, to be his lawfully wedded.

Saturday lunchtime – a full week ahead of the much rumoured “surprise” ceremony, Nicolas and Carla – for the past two months now there has been no need for surnames here in France as everyone knows who is meant - officially tied the knot, with Bruni becoming Mrs Sarkozy mark III in a service at the president’s official residence, the Elysée palace.

Not bad going for a couple who met less than three months ago and a huge sigh of relief all round for protocol as Nicolas no longer has to drag along his justice minister, Rachida Dati, on his state trips abroad because he now has a proper First Lady.

It’ll also surely please France’s quietly-suffering prime minister, François Fillon, who has been privately complaining recently that his boss did not have his mind on affairs of state and had somewhat lost the plot in the whirlwind of his Bling Bling courtship.

A dramatic drop in popularity in yet another opinion poll released last week would certainly seem to back up the widely-held belief that Nicolas has had other matters on his mind. Add to that his declared on-off involvement in next month’s local election campaign and his complete lack of progress in delivering on his own election campaign promise to increase spending power, and it’s not difficult to see why his approval rating has plummeted to an all-time low.

It would be easy to criticise the courtship as a form of presidential speed dating followed by speed marriage, but it’s typical of the breakneck pace at which Sarkozy seems to run both his personal and professional life.

Divorced from Mrs mark II, Cecilia, last October, Nicolas only met his Carla in November, and a month later the two were famously spotted and snapped at their first stage-managed public outing at Eurodisney. An equally media-friendly photo opportunity of a holiday followed in Egypt and Jordan. And at a press conference in January, the president confirmed that he and Bruni were a serious item and marriage was more than likely on the horizon.

There has to be some doubt as to whether the weekend’s nuptials will help stem the momentum of growing public dissatisfaction of the French with their president. In fact it could herald the beginning of a difficult period for him.

His new wife is known not to share some of his political beliefs and comes with a past, which is there in black and white, and often very vivid colour.

Glossy magazines will probably keep dragging up pictures of her exploits for as long as they continue to boost circulation figures – and all the evidence is that plastering a picture of either Carla or Nicolas on the front cover can do just that.

And there’ll also be the inevitable questions about what will happen to her singing career. She reportedly has a new album scheduled and a tour was in the planning.

Since coming to office last May, Sarkozy has changed the rules of politics by opening up the government and inviting in the opposition. At the same time he has reinvented the public role of the president to such an extent that his private life is very much part of the public domain – a novelty for the French.

And it is clearly a fact that the country is now going to have to live with.

If nothing else, and highly appropriate given their first public outing together last December the Sarkozy’s are proving that the “world is really turning Disney and there’s nothing we can do”. Sigh

Bling Bling the bells are ringing aren’t they?

Perhaps they already are. Perhaps they aren’t. In any case speculation is rife as to whether the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his belle, former supermodel-turned-singer, Carla Bruni, have “pledged their vows”.

But we’ve been promised that we’ll probably be the last find out about it once it has happened, should it happen.

It has barely been three months since the couple first met, so by anyone’s standards it truly has been a whirlwind romance conducted at the breakneck speed with which Sarkozy does just about everything.

So before the roller coaster journey from the first public photo op at Disneyland ends with the alter of whatever temple the two choose to tie the knot, time to take a quick look at the president’s current girlfriend and potentially first foreign-born French First Lady.

Her life so far has been a real US-style soap opera, so much so that she totally out-Dallases Dallas. On the surface at least she would seem well-suited to hold court as First Lady at what many have termed the palace of France’s own Bling Bling presidency.

Certainly if press reports are to be believed, she has already made herself at home, dolling up one room at the president’s official residence, the Elysée palace, as her “pop music room” where she presumably at some point intends to put together ditties for a third best-selling album.

She has also been quoted as saying she’s ready to put aside her life as a seductress and would be perfect for the job of First Lady. That’s a far cry from the sentiments of Cecilia Sarkozy, who couldn’t get away from the trappings of being Mrs President fast enough.

The daughter of a wealthy Italian industrialist and composer, Alberto Bruni Tedeschi, and the Italian concert pianist, Marisa Borini, Bruni was born in Turin, moved to France with her family when she was just five and was “discovered” by the world of catwalks at 19.

She has long been considered one of the world’s most beautiful women – the kind who would make wearing a tea cosy not only fashionable but probably also sexy.

Over the years she has acquired the reputation as something of a “man eater”, not an image she has been eager to play down, even apparently going as far as to say once that “I am monogamous from time to time, but I prefer polygamy and polyandry.”

In her 20s she had a much publicised on-off affair with Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger – and in her time has also dated a long and eclectic list of A-listers including US billionaire Donald Trump, British rock star Eric Clapton, Hollywood actor Kevin Costner and even former French Socialist prime minister, Laurent Fabius.

And how’s this for a one-woman double act so to speak. Seven years ago, while living with the French publisher, Jean-Paul Enthoven, she met and fell in love with his son, Raphael.

Bruni and Enthoven Jnr had a son, Aurélien – now six – who was most recently snapped bouncing around on the shoulders of the French president on the streets of Petra, Jordan.

How she will actually fit into Sarkozy’s circles leaves quite a lot to the imagination. She’s privileged bohemian chic with political views more in keeping with those of the president’s opponents. Indeed just shortly before meeting him she publicly criticised Sarkozy’s plans to crack down on illegal immigration and introduce DNA testing.

At 40, she bears a striking physical resemblance to Sarkozy’s second wife, Cecilia. And since her birthday just before Christmas, is also the proud owner of a €40 thousand something ring – a present from the president and an exact copy of one he had already given to Cecilia shortly before the end of their marriage.

So the big question remaining is will she or won’t she, or perhaps is she already (Mrs Sarkozy III)? All right so that’s more than one question

Maybe after all Sarkozy will heed the advice of his 80-year-old mother, Andrée, who just two weeks ago said in an interview that she hoped her son would not contemplate a third marriage as SHE had had more than enough of brides.

But the man is visibly head over heels and maybe her advice has already come too late – who cares? No one and everyone!

JS

The honeymoon is over. Let the honeymoon begin.

According to the weekend’s headlines here in France, the country’s love affair with its president, Nicolas Sarkozy, may be on the downturn, but his own affairs of the heart could see him about to trundle up the aisle once again.

Tumbling seven points in the latest opinion polls Sarkozy has dropped below the 50 per cent approval rating for the first time since he came to office in May last year.

While a majority of those questioned – 48 per cent - gave the president the thumbs up for his work so far, 45 per cent said they were dissatisfied.

No cause for immediate concern perhaps, but a notable dip from just a month ago when the balance was 55-38 and a whopping 17 per cent drop in approval ratings from the halcyon days of last July.

If anything is to be read into the latest figures – and plenty will be over the next couple of days – then on the professional front, December wasn’t really Sarkozy’s month.

He took an awful lot of flak for his handling of the controversial visit of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, and came under fire for his inability to deliver on his major campaign promise to increase purchasing power – beyond repeating his stock answer “work more to earn more.”

And then of course there was the manipulated over-exposure of his personal life with the first public outing of Sarkozy and Carla Bruni in EuroDisney – of all places.

At a press conference this Tuesday he is likely to face some uncomfortably direct questioning on the (slow) pace of reform and especially where that increase in purchasing power is going to come from. Unemployment, pensions, labour relations and speculation on a ministerial reshuffle are also likely to be topics on which he will be grilled, especially as there are local elections due at the beginning of March.

But the burning question on everybody’s lips, and the issue in which the French are least interested apparently, even though it has been splashed across the media this weekend, is whether presidential wedding bells can be expected any time soon.

As yet, Sarkozy has shied away from making an “official” statement about his relationship with the former top model-turned-chanteuse. But after very public, private holidays in recent weeks, it’ll be hard for the president to avoid any mention of it – especially of he is asked.

And if the headline in the French national Sunday newspaper, “Le Journal du Dimanche” is anything to go by, a date has definitely been set for the pair to tie the knot….. apparently. “It’s February 8,” claims the newspaper. “Or most likely February 9,” it adds, wisely hedging its bets.

More speculation perhaps but it has been backed up by Bruni’s Italian mother, Marisa Borini, who told her country’s media a couple of weeks ago that Sarkozy had indeed already popped the question to her daughter.

One undeniable truth though in the romance has been its whirlwind nature, entirely in keeping with a president who has the habit of firing on all fronts simultaneously. Since their Disney appearance the sweethearts have been virtually inseparable, following up a Christmas break in Egypt with a quick trip to Jordan last week.

Bruni as First Lady at the Elysée palace would certainly help the president out in terms of protocol. State visits to Morocco and the United States saw him having to drag long one of his women ministers (usually Rachida Dati) to official functions.

And even combining political duties during his primarily private Yuletide trip to Egypt presented some tricky etiquette manoeuvring. As Madame Sarkozy (part III) Bruni would also have an official role – one that Cecilia (part II) was unwilling to assume.

Oh yes – and here’s a Twilight Zone-type twist of coincidence. Or is it?

Open talk of an impending Sarkozy-Bruni marriage has ratcheted up a gear since the sun-glassed couple were photographed each holding a hand of the “singer’s” young son, Aurélian, as they strolled happily along the streets of Petra, Jordan.

Exactly the same destination to which Cecilia, very publicly fled for a liaison with her amour, French advertising hotshot, Richard Attias, back in May 2005 – an act which marked the beginning of the end for her and Nicolas.

Mere coincidence?

“Deedle, deedle, deedle, deedle.”

Persiflage

Love is in the air

Barely weeks after officially divorcing his apparent femme fatale, the enigmatic Cecilia, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy is reportedly head over heels in love again.

And this time it’s with a leading French television journalist, who recently announced she was splitting from her husband of 14 years.

Laurence Ferrari is not just your run of the mill journo. The 41-year-old presented a number of documentaries on the country’s top-rated TF1 channel and hosted a lightweight political weekly magazine with her former husband, Thomas Hugues.

Indeed Hugues and Ferrari were so-to-speak the golden glamour couple of TV news, perhaps unkindly perceived as the network’s Ken and Barbie. And they were both regular stand-ins for the daily and weekend prime time news anchors Patrick Poivre d'Arvor and Claire Chazal.

But that all changed in Autumn last year when Ferrari was poached by a competitive network – Canal + – and given her own weekly political programme, the chance for her to go one-on-one with some of France’s leading figures.

And it was on the set of that show, Dimanche +, that she met the then presidential candidate in March this year – and by all reports the two clicked.

Over the past few months the couple have supposedly been spotted enjoying candlelit meals together in Paris, and Ferrari is a frequent visitor to the president’s official residence, the Elysée Palace.

She was even allegedly seen at the same hotel in Marrakech, during Sarkozy’s state visit to Morocco earlier this month.

Ah the true stuff of genuine journalism – gossip and speculation.

If the two workaholics do get together you, can bet that the French media will be the last to confirm the relationship as it has until recently been notoriously cautious in reporting the private lives of public people. France has very strict privacy laws.

Should the rumours be true, it won’t be the first time Sarkozy has had a fling with a journalist. Two years ago he was romantically linked to Anna Fulda, a reporter on the centre-right daily Le Figaro.

True or false, the rumours of the fledgling romance persist. And the assertion by an Elysée Palace spokesman that Sarkozy's personal life was "not open for discussion" will hardly help. Much the same response was given in the days leading up to the divorce from Cecilia last month.

It’s Tammy Wynette day at the Elysée

Nicolas and Cecilia Sarkozy split!

While many may view October 18 as Black Thursday for the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, it did in fact have more of a ring about it of the late country singer Tammy Wynette’s two greatest hits.

True the nation was brought to a virtual standstill by a transportation strike over Sarkozy’s proposed pension reforms – a pretty murky day indeed. But that soon became the proverbial chip paper as far as most were concerned after the golden couple of French politics announced the end of their marriage.

Nobody was really surprised after weeks of media buzz. Evidently Cecilia no longer wanted to “Stand by her man” preferring Tammy’s other huge hit D.I.V.O.R.C.E.

So no JFK-Jackie O fairytale after all. Mind you their marriage (the second for both of them) can hardly have been a smooth ride, even though its end was by mutual consent.

HE is a consummate politician, fiercely ambitious, who has had his sights firmly set on the country’s top job from almost the outset of his political career. SHE shuns the spotlight, never wanted to set up house at the presidential residence, the Elysée Palace, and refused outright to slip into the traditional ornamental role of France’s First Lady.

It’s the second time they’ve split – but this time apparently it’s for good. Back in 2005, Cecilia legged it across the Atlantic, preferring the attentions of a New York-based French advertising executive to the hyperactivity of a man destined for high office.

Even though the Sarkozys reconciled in the run-up to May’s presidential election and many political commentators perceived Cecilia as an instrumental part of the campaign team, the rumour mill was rife with reports of another impending separation.

Remember, this was the same woman who failed to vote in the second round of that election and “shocked” the nation by wearing Prada at her husband’s inauguration. She also declared a sore throat as the reason for declining an invitation to tea with George W. and his missus, and was curiously allowed to who swan into Libya at the last moment to help negotiate the freedom of the Bulgarian nurses and doctor who had been sentenced to death.

A maverick who admitted to being neither politically correct nor cut out for the role of First Lady, Cecilia has been noticeable by her absence from her (now) former husband’s side over the past couple of months.









What’s most interesting perhaps about the whole sad affair is not that they’re getting divorced at all, but that the rumours, the announcement and the after-the-fact analysis have made the headlines at all. For sure it’s a first in modern French politics – a divorcé as head of state, but private matters of public figures have traditionally remained exactly that – private.

Perhaps it’s an indication that Sarkozy is now paying the price for his obsession with blanket media coverage of his every twitch.

There again a sceptic would say that it’s nothing more than cynical and calculating politicking. After all the timing was spot on. The transport strike may have been headline news in the morning, but by lunchtime the couple’s divorce was the lead story.

So after releasing the news at the moment guaranteed to make the most impact what does the (un)happy couple do?

HE flies off to Portugal for a pow-wow with other EU leaders – business as usual then. And SHE retires gracefully from public life by granting an exclusive interview to a regional daily, claiming she has been unhappy being in the limelight, wants to take care of her son and pursue her own career.

Oh yes, and she mentioned her fling in New York last year when she fell in love (again). A real withdrawal from the media glare.