Valerie Trierweiler to visit India amid Francois Hollande affair scandal

France’s First Lady Valerie Trierweiler is to visit India as uncertainty continues over her ties with President Francois Hollande.

Valerie Trierweiler will be in Mumbai on Sunday and Monday for a visit organized and funded by a French aid agency, Action Against Hunger.

She was invited in her official capacity, AFP news agency reports.

Doubts have arisen over her status since allegations that Francois Hollande was having an affair emerged.

Valerie Trierweiler and Francois Hollande are unmarried.

She was admitted to hospital immediately after the allegations surfaced on January 10 in Closer magazine, along with photos seeming to show him secretly meeting actress Julie Gayet.

Since leaving the clinic last Sunday, Valerie Trierweiler has not commented on the allegations but has been staying at a presidential retreat in Versailles, La Lanterne.

Valerie Trierweiler and Francois Hollande are scheduled to make their next official foreign visit together on February 11, a state visit to the US.

On Friday, President Francois Hollande visited Pope Francis at the Vatican on his own.

Valerie Trierweiler, 48, last visited India just under a year ago, in the company of the president, 59, when she saw a shelter for street children in the capital Delhi.

In Mumbai, Valerie Trierweiler will be shown around by French actress Charlotte Valandrey, who is involved in the cause of promoting organ donations and transplants.

She will visit a slum and attend a charity gala dinner at a hotel, The Taj Mahal Palace.

According to Action Against Hunger, the visit was planned “long in advance”.

It will be Valerie Trierweiler’s first appearance in the public eye since before the allegations of the affair.

The announcement of the Indian trip astonished some members of staff at the Elysee Palace, Le Parisien reported.

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