Carla Bruni almost unrecognizable as she voted in the French election

Carla Bruni looked almost unrecognizable yesterday as she voted in the French presidential elections alongside with her husband President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Just before exit polls predicted that Nicolas Sarkozy would suffer a humiliating defeat, Carla Bruni, 44, ticked her ballot paper close to her home in Paris’s 16th arrondissement.

Many suggested that too much Botox and other surgical procedures had transformed Carla Bruni’s fresh good-looks into something a lot stranger.

“She looks like the Bride of Wildenstein,” said one onlooker, referring to former millionaire art dealer’s wife Jocelyn Wildenstein who severely altered her face through cosmetic procedures intended to make her look younger.

“Carla is barely recognizable as the glamorous young woman who married Sarkozy in 2008. She looks extremely tired and as if she’s been trying too hard to hold back the years.”

In January, it was claimed a leading American dermatologist said Carla Bruni has had so much Botox she “looks like a chipmunk”.

Los Angeles skin expert Dr. Ben Behnam launched the astonishing personal attack after seeing photos of the former supermodel.

Dr. Ben Benham said: “Carla is over Botoxed. She’s had way too much done.

“That’s why she has the surprised look on her face and looks like a chipmunk.”

Carla Bruni had had a “lateral brow lift” and fillers in her cheeks, Dr. Ben Benham said.

He added: “She looks like she’s had Radiesse, which is a filler for wrinkle reduction. But her results do not look natural.

“A lot of celebrities these days look the same. They all have the puffy cheeks and cat like eyes.

“What they should do is just do a little bit so it just makes them look like a younger version of themselves rather than a 50-year-old trying to look 25.

“A good treatment to get is Sculptra because it looks more natural and can make patients look pretty and attractive rather than that ridiculous fake look.”

Carla Bruni has been the focus of intense French media attention and a raft of unflattering photographs since marrying French president Nicolas Sarkozy four years ago.

She gave birth to their first baby, a daughter named Giulia, late last year.

British cosmetic surgeon Dr. Alex Karidis said a year ago that Carla Bruni – who once dated Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton – was showing “all the classic signs of a devotion to Botox and fillers”.

Dr. Alex Karidis said: “The tiny shadows you can just see beneath her nose were probably caused by injectable fillers to get rid of nose-to-mouth lines.”