First lady no more as Hollande announces split following affair
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French leader Francois Hollande began a new chapter in his presidency yesterday after splitting from his partner of eight years following an affair with a younger actress.
Under intense media scrutiny since the revelation of the affair two weeks ago, Hollande — who had pledged a “normal” presidency after the domestically turbulent stint of his “bling bling” predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy — formally announced his split from Valerie Trierweiler on Saturday.
“A Bachelor at the Elysee,” said the Journal du Dimanche weekly, adding that Trierweiler’s departure as first lady was “the end of an epoch.”
Saying he was speaking as a private individual, Hollande, in a terse statement to AFP over the phone, said: “I wish to make it known that I have ended my partnership with Valerie Trierweiler.”
Trierweiler, 48, had been convalescing at a presidential residence in Versailles outside Paris after leaving hospital last Saturday, where she was treated for what was described as fatigue brought on by press revelations of Hollande’s affair with 41-year-old actress Julie Gayet.
According to media reports, Trierweiler had been ready to forgive Hollande but the president, who has not denied the affair but refused to comment on it saying it was his personal life, wanted to pull the plug.
Trierweiler left for Mumbai yesterday on a charity trip in her first public appearance since the scandal broke. Her entourage said she was accompanied by a presidential bodyguard. A source close to her said: “She is on good terms with the president and she is better.”
But 59-year-old Hollande, who has been attacked by the opposition for political dithering, came under fire from opponents for cheating in his personal life and for procrastinating.
“Valerie, the new Diana,” tweeted Roselyne Bachelot, a former minister in ex-president Sarkozy’s government.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the far-right National Front party, added: “Perfect president? Not in private life: four children outside marriage and a mistress who is not divorced and to whom he could not remain faithful!”
Women ‘cost me dearly’
The Journal du Dimanche quoted Hollande as telling people close to him that “women have cost me dearly,” referring to his splits with Trierweiler and her predecessor Segolene Royal, mother of his four children.
Citing sources, the weekly said Trierweiler would keep an apartment the couple shared in Paris’s middle-class 15th district and also receive “financial compensation.”
After Hollande’s announcement, Trierweiler tweeted: “I extend all my gratitude to the fantastic Elysee staff. I will never forget their dedication nor the emotional farewell.”
Labor Minister Michel Sapin, who is close to Hollande, said the “decision was necessary for the sake of clarity. Now it’s done.”
Gayet, meanwhile, has kept a low profile since the scandal broke on January 10 when French glossy Closer splashed photos of Hollande arriving for alleged secret trysts at a flat near the Elysee Palace on a scooter.
Hollande announced his separation from Royal, a senior member of his Socialist party and a presidential candidate in 2007, just after she lost the election to Sarkozy.
He then started living openly with Trierweiler, with whom he was understood to have begun a relationship in 2005. Trierweiler assumed the role of first lady at official functions after Hollande’s election in 2012.
Sources said the couple worked out the terms of their split at a lunch last Thursday.
Hollande promised at a news conference earlier this month that he would publicly define what relationship, if any, he and Trierweiler had before a February 11 state visit to Washington.
Trierweiler is a glamorous, twice-married career journalist who has three children of her own.
Hollande is the second French president to split from his partner while in office.
In 2007, his predecessor Sarkozy divorced his wife Cecilia and married former supermodel and singer Carla Bruni the following year.
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