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"Cecilia and Nicolas Sarkozy announce their separation by mutual consent," the Elysée Palace statement said.
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PARIS (AFP)---French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife
Cécilia have agreed to separate "by mutual consent" after an often tempestuous 11 year marriage, the presidency announced Thursday.
The Elysée Palace released a statement to confirm the split as weeks of speculation reached fever pitch with French newspapers and magazines putting the first couple on their front pages with reports of divorce proceedings.
"Cécilia and Nicolas Sarkozy announce their separation by mutual consent. They will make no comment," the brief statement said.
The French president was at an EU summit in Lisbon but the whereabouts of his wife was unknown.
The couple, who have a 10-year-old son, split for several months in 2005 when Cecilia ran away with an advertising executive in New York.
They have barely been seen together since Sarkozy, 52, took office in May and Cecilia has been evidently unhappy in her role as first lady.
Her last public appearance was in September at the funeral of her first husband, television presenter Jacques Martin.
She has also flunked several foreign visits. In August she cried off a
lunch party with US President George W. Bush. Two weeks ago she offended the Bulgarian government when she refused to come to Sofia with her husband to receive an award for her help in the Libya nurses affair.
Hidebound by legal constraints, the French press has until now only eluded glancingly to the couple’s problems. But on Thursday the change in coverage was dramatic, as newspapers splashed the marital troubles.
"Desperate Housewife" headlined Liberation, beneath a full-page picture of Cécilia. All the weekly new magazines carried the couple’s problems on their front pages.
The Paris-match society magazine had a three-page photo-spread of the president’s wife, in which the former model, who has a law degree and was a political advisor to her husband, poses in a Paris hotel. The piece was entitled "Cecilia -- a woman serene" but it contained no revelations about the marriage.
The couple first met in 1984 when Sarkozy -- then mayor of Neuilly -- officiated at her wedding to Martin. Both later divorced and 12 years later, each with two children, Cecilia and Nicolas Sarkozy married. Their son Louis was born year later.
Born into a Jewish-Spanish family
Born into a wealthy Jewish-Spanish family based in France -- her
grandfather was a Spanish ambassador -- Cécilia is an independent woman, and she made no secret that she would not play a conventional role as president’s wife.
In an interview before the election, she said she did not see herself as a first lady. "It bores me. I prefer going round in cowboy boots and combat trousers. I don’t fit the mould," she said.
For his part Sarkozy, 52, 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.
Several newspapers have reported that the couple initiated divorce
proceedings at a family affairs court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Monday.
However the official statement spoke only of separation.
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.