So far, the French haven’t had a good October:
Firstly, they didn’t beat England to qualify for the Rugby World Cup Final, then the President and his wife announced their ’separation’ and on the same day that there was a general transport strike. Just to rub salt into the wounds, their national rugby team went on to loose to Argentina for the 3rd place play-off in the Rugby … and those lovely transport people extended their industrial action.
The divorce:
Well, a statement from the Elysée Palace said “What is intended by the word separation is divorce,” it said. The couple’s lawyer said they had seen a judge to formalise the split and “there was no problem, they resolved everything amicably”. Furthermore, they stressed that it was a private affair – so private to the extent that Cecila Sarkosy went running off to the papers …
Cecilia Maria Sara Isabel Ciganer-Albeniz was born in Paris, in 1957, to a father of Russian origins and a Spanish mother. She became a law student and a model, In 1984, aged 27, she married 51-year old TV presenter Jacques Martin at the town hall of the chic Paris suburb of Neuilly. The man who performed their marriage ceremony was a certain Nicolas Sarkozy, who was then the 29-year old mayor of the suburb.
The marriage with Mr Martin produced two daughters but in 1987, she met Mr Sarkozy again and he was apparently “struck by lightning” as he fell in love with her and she with him. The two left their respective spouses for each other, finally marrying in 1996.
A year later, she gave birth to their son, Louis. Cecilia was one of her husband’s closest political advisers and when he became minister of the interior, her office was next to his. Ahh, bless …
However, in 2005 the couple had a well-publicised split when Cecilia went running off to New York and to the unzipped trousers of international communications consultant, Richard Attias. She told friends that she had had enough of being treated like “part of the furniture”.
Glossy magazine, Paris Match, published a series of photos of Cecilia with her lover in New York. The secret came out and Sarkozy’s was furious. However, in January 2006, Cecilia returned to Sarkozy. In the meantime, only a few newspapers had dared to report his affair (during her absence) with a French political journalist.
Last year, Mr Sarkozy wrote: “Today, Cecilia 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.”
In 2007, in the run-up to the Presidential elections, controversy surrounded her absences during the campaign. Was she, wasn’t she going to turn up somewhere? She was present during the first round of voting but not the second but she was with her husband as he claimed victory on Place de la Concorde on the evening of 6 May.
Since Sarkozy’s win last May, she has certainly demonstrated her unwillingness to act like a traditional first lady. In August she raised eyebrows when, using the ’sore throat’ excuse, turned down an invitation to a picnic with President Bush and family – only to be photographd out shopping on the day before and day after.
All was not well and the separation/divorce announcement was made on the same day that the country’s transport system went on strike … spoilt workers bitching about their overly-generous retirement packages which kick-in when they reach the ripe old age of 50.
So, Cecilia went to the papers and Nicolas went to a European Council meeting in Portugal, no-one went to work and the French rugby team took the ‘cuillère en bois’.
Best put a line though this month, eh?
