NPR: Rumors About French President's Marriage Abound

Rumors About French President's Marriage Abound

French President Nicolas Sarkozy gets ready to deliver a speech in July in Paris with his wife, Cecilia, nearby.

Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images

"The president's wife has gone missing," writes a Paris correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.

The conspicuous absence of Cecilia Sarkozy from public outings with her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, has the French abuzz with rumors that the couple is getting a divorce. Sarkozy and his wife, a former model, have long had a rocky relationship — she even left him for another man for several months in 2005 — but this time people are wondering if she's gone for good.

Eleanor Beardsley, an NPR contributor in Paris, tells me that the state of the Sarkozys' relationship is an "undercurrent" running through the French public and media this week. There were rumors that the couple had filed divorce papers at a local courthouse and that court officials would officially declare the divorce on Monday, but an announcement never came. "Everybody's waiting for it," she says.

And unlike the media roar that would ensue if rumors started that President Bush was divorcing his wife, the major news outlets in France have been low-key so far. "The French media have always been very strict about not nosing around in people's private lives. So none of this is on the front pages over here. But if they do file for divorce, then it will be everywhere," Eleanor says.

And here's an interesting sidebar: Cecilia Sarkozy cannot file for divorce from her husband because, as president of the country, he has immunity from prosecution in criminal and civil proceedings. She would have to convince him to file jointly.

5:11 PM ET | 10-16-2007 | permalink

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