Posted on 10/12/2007 12:45:42 AM PDT by Cincinna
Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, faces renewed speculation that his marriage may be about to break down after reportedly saying that he was getting ready for life as a bachelor.
Mr Sarkozy let slip that he was preparing for life without Cécilia, France's first lady, in a conversation with his friend Mikhail Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, during a rugby match between the two leaders' countries last month.
According to the weekly Nouvel Observateur magazine, the conversation was relayed to American journalists.
Rumours have been flying since last week, when Mrs Sarkozy failed to accompany her husband on a trip to Bulgaria to receive the country's highest award. Mrs Sarkozy had personally negotiated the release of six Bulgarian medics from Libya in July, turning her into a national heroine.
Mr Sarkozy said she had not come because she had been "hurt" by the controversy surrounding the medics' release.
The president's spokesman later refused to confirm or deny claims that the pair were on the verge of announcing a split. "I don't comment on newsroom rumours, and certainly not that one," said David Martinon.
Mrs Sarkozy has been conspicuously absent from her husband's side since his election in May and has only accompanied him in an official capacity three times, leading the French press to dub her "the invisible woman".
The couple were briefly separated in 2005 when Mrs Sarkozy had an affair with an events manager. During their separation, he had an affair with a journalist.
In his book Testimony, Mr Sarkozy wrote last year: "Today, Cécilia and I are reunited for good, for real, doubtless for ever... We are not able and do not know how to separate from each other."
The level of feverish gossip in the French media and on the internet has reached unprecedented heights in a country which was once famous for ignoring its leaders' private lives.
Mrs Sarkozy's last-minute decision to cry off a hamburger lunch with President George W Bush during the family's summer holiday in New Hampshire was seen as further evidence of problems.
Neither Cécilia nor her husband has moved into the Elysée palace, the official presidential residence.
Instead, she spends most of her time in their flat in the wealthy suburb of Neuilly, south west of Paris, and at La Lanterne, a weekend retreat near Versailles normally reserved for French prime ministers.
Aides had promised that she would outline the role she intends to play as first lady this autumn, but that now looks unlikely.
"Cécilia wants to remain 'free'," said presidential spokesman Mr Martinon of the woman who once admitted that the idea of being a first lady "bores me".
Mrs Sarkozy has refused to answer to a parliamentary inquiry into whether the Bulgarians were released from Libya in exchange for arms or nuclear facilities. The Elysée argues that as her husband's "personal envoy", Mrs Sarkozy need not answer.
However, opposition Socialists disagree. The commission's head, Pierre Moscovici, intends to interview former prime minister Tony Blair as well as the Libyan leader Col Muammar Gadaffi
The Telegraph, the bottom of the feeding chain of the London tabloids, has got this one right.
In a recent poll. the unpopularity of Cecilia is mind boggling. The French really hate her!
Her feigned illness as an excuse to spend an afternoon with the entire Bush family in Kennebunkport, and the inability of Sarko to have any influence over his wife are all bad signs.
Cecilia is a woman who is really very shallow. Basically uneducated, her greatest claim to fame was being able to ensnare Jacques Martin, the TV star into a shot gun marriage.
Sarko may well be the most gifted and brilliant politician to come on the world scene in 50 years, but he sure has no common sense when it comes to women.
I guess that will make him the most eligible bachelor in the world, tho probably not for long.
Say, I wonder what Belinda Stronach is up to these days? Bill Clinton, Peter MacKay, maybe third time’s the charm?
Hmmm ‘Belinda Sarkozy’.
It has a ring.
Ping to ‘fanfan’ ;)
Cher chez L’Femme Fatale.
“I guess that will make him the most eligible bachelor in the world, tho probably not for long.”
Didn’t see that one coming.../s
“Sorry” Cincinna, but this sort of thing is what I tend to expect from France, I don’t say that in a bad way, rather I’ve always considered the French to be “In love with being in Love”.
I give Sarko about 2 weeks after this becomes official before he shows up at some event with a Le petite femme such as a runway model or some other famous beauty in France or Europe.
Sarko after all, is not Chirac, a younger man who is quite handsome, wouldn’t surprise me if he starts a “second” family while in office.
Perish the thought.
Sarkozy needs a nice conservative lady.
BTW, Belinda was just down in the US, getting health care.
Freud was miles and miles ahead of any poster on this thread. After all he famously said, “When it comes to women, all men are dumb.” Well, he would have said it if had lived long enough to see the antics of Sarko, Bill C, Giuiliani, Limbaugh and many others.
Or an Asian one would be even better. ;-D
Replace old hagness with young hawtness.
That would be a 3rd family. Sarko has two sons from his first marriage, and one 8 year old son with Cecilia.
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