PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia have divorced by mutual consent after an often tempestuous 11-year marriage, the presidency announced Thursday.
The ElyseePalace released a statement to confirm the split as weeks of speculation reached fever pitch and newspapers for the first time devoted extensive front-page reports to the collapse of the marriage.
"Cecilia and Nicolas Sarkozy announce their separation by mutual consent. They will make no comment," a terse first communique said.
Two hours later a second statement said they have "divorced by mutual consent".
As the news broke, Sarkozy left for an EU summit in Lisbon.
Cecilia has been spotted in the capital in recent days, driving her Mini Cooper car and shopping ahead of the wedding of her 20-year-old daughter Jeanne-Marie.
The couple, who have a 10 year old son, have had a notoriously difficult marriage, and broke up for several months in 2005 when Cecilia ran away to New York to be with an advertising executive.
The Sarkozys reconciled but have barely been seen together since Nicolas Sarkozy, 52, took office in May.
Cecilia never moved into the Elysee palace and her last public appearance was in September at the funeral of her first husband, television presenter Jacques Martin.
"She didn't want to participate in presidential life or in public life. It was inevitable," said Partrick Balkany, a member of Sarkozy's UMP party who with his wife Isabelle is a close friend of the couple.
"She left (in 2005), and she came back. And when she came back they really thought they could start all over again. But they couldn't. It is one of those things. It is a commonplace affair, but it is always sad when a couple breaks up," he said.
"The president is deeply affected, but I honestly think it will have no impact on his role as head of state," said Isabelle Balkany.
It was not immediately clear if the divorce procedures have been definitively concluded.
Le Monde newspaper reported that the couple have set a date six weeks from now to conclude the process before a judge.
The couple first met in 1984 when Sarkozy - then mayor of the Paris suburb of Neuilly - officiated at her wedding to Martin.
Both later divorced and 12 years later they were married.
Each had two children from their first marriages and their son Louis was born in 1997.
A former model who worked as a parliamentary assistant and her husband's ministerial adviser, Cecilia made no secret of her impatience with the conventional idea of being the president's wife.
In an interview before the election, she said the notion of first lady "bores me. I prefer going round in cowboy boots and combat trousers. I don't fit the mould."
Her unease became apparent as she avoided several foreign trips, famously crying off a lunch party with US President George W Bush.
Two weeks ago she offended the Bulgarian government when she refused to go to Sofia with her husband to receive an award for her help in the Libya nurses affair.
Sarkozy for his part spoke publicly of his emotional reliance on his wife and his need to please her.
Their separation in 2005 left him by his own account "profoundly shaken".
"Everything indicates a dependence on his wife. On her presence depends the president's psychological state. If the head of state gets heartsick, the whole country sneezes," said Christophe Barbier, editor of l'Express magazine.
Hidebound by legal constraints and its traditions of discretion, the French press has until now only alluded to the separation rumours.
But on Thursday newspapers splashed the marital troubles.
"Desperate Housewife" headlined Liberation, beneath a full-page picture of Cecilia, while the Paris-Match society magazine had a three-page photo-spread of Cecilia taken recently in a Paris hotel.
Some constitutional experts said there could be difficulties obtaining a divorce because the president's position as guarantor of the law means he cannot appear before a judge.
However others said that a divorce by mutual consent should not pose problems
Maybe the president is too busy with his political issue and forget that his wife need love and affection. However, wife sometime needs to understand that the husband have to work very hard just for her. Life is not always a candy like the first love. This is a norm of family structure.
Yes, almost everything we can tell, but when it comes to people feeling like love definitely we cannot tell. That is a love. No need to be so serious about it. It is something uncertainty. Even Princess Diana also had boyfriend while she was having husband.
Princess Diana had a boyfriend because her husband Prince Charles cheated on her with his first lover (his wife now). Charles never loved Diana, he was forced into marriage because Diana was a virgin and came from a royal's family. Charles cheated on Diana since day one after they got married. Diana couldn't figure it out why her husband strayed. She was looking for someone who really loved her. Charles only used her to have his two sons.
I don't think Charles will ever become a king of England, his mom will outlive him. William will become the next king after Queen Elizabeth.
Feel indifferent: that's our president's private life, we don't care and have nothing to do with that
Worry: Cecilia had a strong infuence over the president to give him good advices. Moreover, our president is very emotional : if everything is OK with Cecilia, the president work well. When things are wrong with cecilia, our president feel upset, angry easily....
Laugh: the problems with cecilia are not new.... We know this since 2005. But during the campaign, Sarko communicated a lot about his couple, show everything is ok now.... many people voted for him also because they liked Cecilia, liked the couple.... Now, we know everything was just lie.... Of course everything was not OK with cecilia during the elections... but Sarko made us believe it.
Finaly? i don't care.... anyway, i still don't understand how people could be stupid enough to choose this man as president...i don't care this president for the moment... let's see his results in a few years, but for the moment, there is nothing good for sure, and not big hope. Government in 2008 will spend 41 billions euros more that what they will get through various taxes... just run faster and faster to the wall and crash! Do you know the ammout of the public debt in my country? 1000 or 2000 billions euros (1 euro=1,43$)... 60 million people in france, this mean a debt of 17000 euros for each person living in France, 68000 euros for a 4 persons family, and you can add near 1000 euros each year! How long will we be able to continue like this? Who will pay back the debt?
At the same time, Laos little by little escape from poverty ;)
Princess Diana had a boyfriend because her husband Prince Charles cheated on her with his first lover (his wife now). Charles never loved Diana, he was forced into marriage because Diana was a virgin and came from a royal's family.
In our Lao culture we cannot imagine, while woman has husband, she still has boyfriend. But for the western people this kind of thing is normal. For Lao people this kind of thing regards as really disgrace issue.
Yes, love is something that we cannot force each other.
In our Lao culture we cannot imagine, while woman has husband, she still has boyfriend. But for the western people this kind of thing is normal.
Hey! where did you get this idea??? Sorry, but the reality is not so hard!
I would say, in western culture, SOME people would consider this kind of thing CAN BE ACCEPTABLE.... only VERY VERY FEW will consider this as normal! Do you really imagine that most of western husband can accept if their wife have a boyfriend? who do you think we are? And you can add the same thing for husbands having GF... do you really think our wifes are ready to accept that?
For most of western people, our sex behaviour is not so far from your values.... just we feel little bit more free with that (ex: having sex before mariage, show nudity in movies or photos). But only very very few people have a very free sex life as you describe. For sure, they are not representative of our culture.
No, it's not acceptable for a spouse to have a girlfriend or a boyfriend while being married in the Western World either, we have values. Men in Asia are the most flirtatious on the universe, they tend to cheat on their wives more than men in the Western world, I know for fact.
White people believe in MONYGAMY than you think especially American people, they know right from wrong just like our Asian culture. When an Asian man cheats, the wife keeps her mouth shut. When a white man or woman cheats, it's in the newspaper, this is the reason why we think Westerners accept this kind of behavior. WRONG WRONG WRONG, they have values just like us.
How about Lao men and women living in USA? I heard that their wives can go with boyfriends (Negro) and they husbands stay at home with children? Is it true?
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Anonymous
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RE: Even President could not keep his wife. How about ordinary people's love?
I never heard of any woman in my State doing that. To tell you the truth Lao women in America have more choices in men than Lao women in Laos, they can find Asians, Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, etc. Asian women are more acceptable to those races than Asian men are, that's why Lao woman doesn't care too much for a Lao man if she can't find one, she thinks she can find a boyfriend or husband outside her own race as well. The same with Lao women in other Western countries.
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Anonymous
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RE: Even Presedent could not keep his wife. How about ordinary people's love?
You meant in western countries the Lao men are the third or fourth choice for Lao women. First they of course they will choose the white, the black ..men, is it right?
Lets face it, people like to get it on with each other and 'morality' does not reflect 'reality' in Laos or anywhere else. I know married Lao women who have 'bicycles' - name for their boyfriends while their husbands are travelling on business. And i know many Lao men who have mia noi. So, on the one hand we have everyone saying "oh oh oh lao tradition, lao culture, everyone goes to the temple, nobody even dares to think bad things etc etc" and on the other hand we have a reality of promiscuity that is as elaborate as anywhere else on the planet. And this whole Eastern/Western divide thing is silly. People are people, and they like a good rodding. I've met Westerners with minor wives and Lao who are in happy and safe monogamous marriages. But sex and desire are not love, although commonly mistaken for love. Love entails a respect for the dignity, privacy and welbeing of someone over and above and much more importantly than anything you desire for yourself. It is empathetic and selfless. So my advice to all of you is: If you are not with the one you love, love the one you are with. And enjoy it.
