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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 is to visit India as uncertainty continues over her ties with President Francois Hollande
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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President Francois Hollande has met Pope Francis at the Vatican on his first foreign visit since reports of his alleged affair with actress Julie Gayet.
A Vatican statement said Francois Hollande and Pope Francis’ talks covered the family, bioethics and respect for religious communities.
France is planning to amend its laws on abortion and assisted suicide.
Francois Hollande’s partner, Valerie Trierweiler, spent a week in hospital amid claims he had been having an affair with Julie Gayet.
Julie Gayet has announced she is suing Closer magazine, which published the original reports, for breach of privacy.
Valerie Trierweiler, meanwhile, is travelling to India on Sunday in support of the work of the French charity Action Against Hunger.
On Thursday she sacked her lawyer for saying she was seeking to end her relationship withFrancois Hollande “with the greatest possible dignity”.
Valerie Trierweiler told the Europe 1 radio network she “felt betrayed”.
Francois Hollande has met Pope Francis at the Vatican on his first foreign visit since reports of his alleged affair with actress Julie Gayet
Speaking after their meeting, Francois Hollande said he had asked the Pope if the Vatican would receive a delegation from one of Syria’s main opposition groups, the National Council.
Talks aimed at ending the three-year-old Syrian conflict are under way in Switzerland.
“We need to do everything to stop the fighting and dispatch humanitarian aid,” Francois Hollande said.
Hours before Francois Hollande arrived in Rome, a small bomb exploded outside the offices of a French foundation near the Vatican. No-one was injured, police said, but three parked cars were damaged.
In addition to his alleged affair with Julie Gayet, Francois Hollande and Valerie Trierweiler have never married – a further irritant to Catholic traditionalists.
Francois Hollande has refused to state whether Valerie Trierweiler remains his official partner and the first lady of France. The president has promised to clarify the situation before he makes a state visit to Washington next month.
He also has four children with his previous partner, Segolene Royal.
Relations between the Catholic Church and Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party have also been strained at a policy level.
The French National Assembly on Tuesday voted to strengthen the right to abortion and is considering a bill on assisted suicide.
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Closer magazine first published details of President Francois Hollande’s affair with actress Julie Gayet last Friday.
Francois Hollande’s partners:
- 1988: Francois Hollande meets journalist Valerie Trierweiler. He was a Socialist Party MP with a steady partner, Segolene Royal
- Family years: Valerie Trierweiler raises three children with second husband, while Francois Hollande raises four with his unmarried partner, Segolene Royal
Francois Hollande’s partners, Segolene Royal, Valerie Trierweiler and Julie Gayet
- November 2007: Valerie Trierweiler announces she is Francois Hollande’s new partner, six months after he leaves Segolen Royal, who has just been defeated as the Socialist presidential candidate
- Early 2012: Francois Hollande allegedly begins affair with actress Julie Gayet, who has two children from her first marriage to Santiago Amigorena
- May 2012: Valerie Trierweiler, still officially Francois Hollande’s unmarried partner, becomes first lady of France after his victory in the presidential election
- June 2013: Valerie Trierweiler wins damages of 10,000 euros ($13,675) from authors of The Troublemaker, a book that made allegations about her private life before Francois Hollande’s election
- January 2014: Valerie Trierweiler is admitted to hospital after Closer publishes a report on Francois Hollande’s alleged affair with Julie Gayet, accompanied by photos.[youtube IM2ZslAue_Q 650]
France’s President Francois Hollande has visited First Lady Valerie Trierweiler in hospital for the first time since reports of his alleged affair with actress Julie Gayet broke last week.
Valerie Trierweiler was admitted to hospital, apparently in shock after learning of the reports.
Closer magazine first published details of Francois Hollande’s link with Julie Gayet last Friday.
The gossip magazine has further alleged that the affair began during the 2012 presidential race.
Julie Gayet, 41, says she is suing Closer magazine for breach of privacy, seeking 50,000 euros ($68,000) in damages and 4,000 euros in legal costs.
Francois Hollande visited his partner in hospital for the first time on Thursday evening, the Elysee Palace confirmed on Friday, without giving further details.
Valerie Trierweiler, 48, was admitted to hospital last Friday – hours after the first revelations made by Closer magazine.
President Francois Hollande has visited First Lady Valerie Trierweiler in hospital for the first time since reports of his alleged affair
In an apparent defense of Francois Hollande’s character, Valerie Trierweiler reportedly spoke to a radio journalist earlier on Thursday to explain that he had been told to stay away from the hospital by doctors.
The journalist said she was told Francois Hollande had sent flowers and chocolates and had met the team that is looking after Valerie Trierweiler.
Valerie Trierweiler said she was “very tired to the point of not being able to stand up”, and had been suffering from low blood pressure and low morale but was determined to leave hospital with her head held high.
In response to the reports, a source at the Elysee Palace said Francois Hollande was “not unhappy” about the hospital forbidding him to visit.
French media have claimed that Valerie Trierweiler suffered an anxiety attack last week, but her friends have played down her condition.
Le Point magazine quoted a friend of Valerie Trierweiler as saying she had taken “one pill too many”, but had not tried to commit suicide.
At his annual news conference on Tuesday at the Elysee to discuss his political agenda, Francois Hollande was asked questions about the alleged affair.
Francois Hollande, 59, said he was experiencing a “difficult moment” in his private life but refused to answer questions over the report in Closer, saying “private matters should be dealt with privately”.
Nor would he clarify whether Valerie Trierweiler was still first lady before a February trip to the US.
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Closer magazine has revealed today that French President François Hollande’s relationship with actress Julie Gayet goes back for over two years.
The gossip magazine, which revealed the affair a week ago, said that Julie Gayet, now 41, had been introduced to Francois Hollande by his former partner Ségolène Royal in 2011 when he was a front-running presidential candidate.
Their romantic affair can be traced back at least 12 months to December 2012, Closer said, but their relationship was already “intimate” during the presidential campaign in the spring of that year.
While currently linked to Francois Hollande, Julie Gayet was previously romanced by a different leading man. Julie Gayet was reportedly married to screenwriter, film producer, director and actor Santiago Amigorena in 2003.
Santiago Amigorena is best known for his work directing the war thriller A Few Days in September and was also awarded by the Warsaw International Film Festival for directing the feature Another Silence in 2011.
Julie Gayet’s ex-husband, the writer Santiago Amigorena, 51, confirmed his former wife was “very calm and confident” as she hid away from the media storm created by the scandal.
He said his ex-wife, with whom he has two sons, was a “sublime actress, who works a lot, a mother who cares for her two children”.
Santiago Amigorena insisted there was “no fault, no deception” on her part.
Closer magazine has revealed that President François Hollande’s relationship with actress Julie Gayet goes back for over two years
Julie Gayet’s ex-husband, the writer Santiago Amigorena, 51, confirmed his former wife was “very calm and confident” as she hid away from the media storm created by the scandal.
He said his ex-wife, with whom he has two sons, was a “sublime actress, who works a lot, a mother who cares for her two children”.
Santiago Amigorena insisted there was “no fault, no deception” on her part.
Before her scandalous relationship with Francois Hollande, Julie Gayet did make her name for herself in the acting business overseas. According to her IMDB page, Julie Gayet has been credited in 90 roles since working in the film industry in the 1990s.
In 1997 Julie Gayet was awarded with the Brussels International Film Festival award for best actress for her role in the French film, Select Hotel.
In 2009, Julie Gayet won the Tokyo International Film Festival best actress award for her role in 8 Fois Debout. She is reportedly currently filming the made-for-TV movie Ca va passer… Mais quand?.
Meanwhile, Julie Gayet, breaking her silence about the affair, has formally denied in a statement to Europe 1 radio reports that she is four months pregnant. An unsourced rumor of her pregnancy, which appeared briefly on a French blog, was picked up by some foreign media earlier this week.
Julie Gayet is already the parent to two teenage sons.
According to a report from the Telegraph, Julie Gayet comes from a prestigious upbringing. The British publication reported last week that Francois Hollande’s alleged lover was raised in the western Paris suburb of Suresnes. Her parents reportedly worked as a surgeon and an antiques dealer. According to the article, Julie Gayet has previously commented on her upbringing, stating that she didn’t take on acting as a career “for the money”.
When recently prompted by reporters to address his alleged affair with Julie Gayet and his relationship with Valerie Trierweiler, President Francois Hollande would only reveal the current “pain” he is dealing with in his personal life, saying: “Everyone in his private life can go through ordeals. That is what is happening to us.”
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A survey for French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur showed a three-point jump among women in approval for President Francois Hollande following Julie Gayet affair report, from 23% in December to 26%.
In contrast, men in France seem far less impressed by the president’s reported liaisons and his rating stayed at 26%.
Francois Hollande’s official partner Valerie Trierweiler, 48, is still in a hospital bed in central Paris, where she has been lying since news of the president’s affair with Julie Gayet, 41, broke last Friday.
There is nothing physically wrong with Valerie Trierweiler, but she said learning about the relationship was like “being hit by a high-speed train” and is desperate to win public sympathy.
Intriguingly, an Elysee Palace spokesman would not say to whether Francois Hollande had even visited his de fact first lady in hospital, where Valerie Trierweiler has so far spent few nights.
Francois Rebsamen, a Socialist MP, said the revelations showed the entire idea of a First Lady was outdated.
“There is no longer a First Lady in France – these practices are outdated, passé and should be banned,” he told RTL radio.
He added: “François Hollande himself said it at one point: You elect a person. And then this person can live alone, can be single, can live with another man or a woman. It’s doesn’t interest people and it doesn’t come into play.”
“This means that there is no First Lady, it’s over.”
Valerie Trierweiler and Francois Hollande are not married but have been together for six years, making her the de facto first lady
Mother-of-three Valerie Trierweiler, 48, has told friends she is ready to forgive Francois Hollande if he states both “publicly and privately” that his affair with Julie Gayet is over.
Francois Hollande has spoken only about the scandal since it was made public last Friday, to say he deplored the intrusion into his privacy.
Despite the media attention, a recent poll found 80% of French people believed Francois Hollande’s love life should remain private.
And 90% believed France’s struggling economy is the most critical issues facing the nation.
A spokesman said Valerie Trierweiler, would stay in hospital “for another six or eight more days”, adding that she needed rest after a “very strong emotional shock”.
From her hospital bed, Valerie Trierweiler seemed well enough to be orchestrating a campaign to win public sympathy.
She let it be known that she felt she had been “hit by a high-speed train” – but was ready to forgive Francois Hollande.
Valerie Trierweiler and Francois Hollande are not married but have been together for six years, making her the de facto first lady when the Socialist leader became president in 2012.
The divorced magazine journalist, who still writes a column for Paris Match, has been widely criticized for her high living.
She has five taxpayer-funded staff at her permanent disposal and the use of several homes, jets and limousines.
Valerie Trierweiler has been personally briefing French newspaper Le Parisien, which quoted “a friend” as saying: “She seems ready to forgive, but she wants to know quickly what Francois Hollande’s intentions are.”
Frédéric Gerschel of Le Parisien later said he had spoken directly to Valerie Trierweiler.
He said: “She has made it clear that a clarification is needed. She knows that, if she is no longer first lady she cannot continue to have an office in the Elysee and make use of state funds.”
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Julie Gayet, the actress who is believed to be having an affair with Fance’s President Francois Hollande, is reported to be four-month pregnant.
The sensational claim, posted on the official Twitter account of the lereel.fr website, is said to have come from a source close to Francois Hollande and been confirmed by a journalist working for the M6 television news channel.
A translation of the post reads: “Julie Gayet is four months pregnant according to a source close of Francois Hollande at the Elysee, information confirmed by a journalist at M6.”
Julie Gayet, the actress who is believed to be having an affair with Fance’s President Francois Hollande, is reported to be four-month pregnant
On Tuesday’s press conference, President Francois Hollande refused to answer whether his long-term partner Valerie Trierweiler is still France’s First Lady, but said he would clarify her status before his trip to Washington next month.
Francois Hollande said he would answer the question of Valerie Trierweiler’s status before his planned visit to the US on February 11.
He said the presidential partner had “no official status” in France, and he was determined to keep costs down, whoever was confirmed as First Lady.
Valerie Trierweiler is the first person to hold the post who was not married to the president.
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Closer magazine claims French President Francois Hollande has been having an affair with actress Julie Gayet for two years.
The gossip magazine also printed more details of the alleged romance, which it says began during the 2012 presidential race.
Julie Gayet has announced she is suing Closer magazine for breach of privacy.
Francois Hollande’s official partner and France’s first lady, Valerie Trierweiler, remains in hospital, where she was admitted after learning of the alleged affair a week ago.
In its latest revelations, Closer said Francois Hollande used a second apartment in the west of Paris to meet the 41-year-old actress.
It is claimed the pair snatched weekends together in the south of France, and that Francois Hollande made excuses to avoid a holiday in Greece last year with Valerie Trierweiler, so he could travel instead to his Correze constituency with Julie Gayet.
The magazine said the president and Julie Gayet had been having a “turbulent romance” for two years – during and after Francois Hollande’s election campaign.
The magazine did not publish any further photos despite earlier reports that it would.
Closer magazine claims French President Francois Hollande has been having an affair with actress Julie Gayet for two years
Julie Gayet is seeking 50,000 euros ($68,000) in damages and 4,000 euros in legal costs from the magazine.
If she wins, Closer will have to publish the legal verdict on its cover page, AFP reports.
Francois Hollande decided not to take legal action after first threatening to.
Valerie Trierweiler – seemingly still keen to defend Francois Hollande’s character – is said to have defended him following reports he had not visited her in hospital.
She phoned a journalist on Thursday to explain it was her doctors who had asked Francois Hollande not to attend.
Valerie Trierweiler said she is still too weak to stand – and that the president has sent flowers and chocolates in his absence.
In response to the reports, a source at the Elysee Palace said Francois Hollande was “not unhappy” about the hospital forbidding him to visit.
Meanwhile, French magazine Le Point has quoted a friend of Valerie Trierweiler saying she had not tried to commit suicide but had taken “one pill too many”.
Francois Hollande, 59, told reporters on Tuesday he was experiencing a “difficult moment” in his private life but refused to answer questions over the report in Closer, saying “private matters should be dealt with privately”.
Nor would he clarify whether Valerie Trierweiler, 48, was still first lady before a February trip to the US.
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Julie Gayet, the actress linked to French President Francois Hollande, is suing Closer magazine that published photos of their alleged affair.
Julie Gayet, 41, initiated proceedings against Closer for breach of privacy, the magazine told AFP news agency.
Francois Hollande himself said last week he was considering suing the magazine.
Julie Gayet is suing Closer magazine that published photos of her alleged affair with President Francois Hollande
The photos plunged the presidency into a crisis which saw Francois Hollande’s official partner, Valerie Trierweiler, taken to hospital.
Julie Gayet is seeking 50,000 euros ($68,000) in damages and 4,000 euros in legal costs from the magazine.
If Julie Gayet wins, Closer magazine will have to publish the legal verdict on its cover page, AFP reports.
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French government has blocked the appointment of actress Julie Gayet to a cultural jury.
Julie Gayet was recently linked to an affair with President Francois Hollande.
The culture ministry gave no reasons for blocking Julie Gayet from the jury, which selects scholarships for Villa Medici – the French academy in Rome.
Allegations of Julie Gayet and Francois Hollande affair surfaced in the magazine Closer last week.
Valerie Trierweiler, Francois Hollande’s official partner and France’s first lady, has been in hospital since Friday with what aides call “shock”.
At a news conference yesterday, Francois Hollande said he was experiencing a “difficult moment” in his private life.
The president refused to answer questions about the allegations, saying “private matters should be dealt with privately”.
Julie Gayet was recently linked to an affair with President Francois Hollande
Julie Gayet has not commented publicly on the allegations.
The satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine said Julie Gayet, 41, had been proposed to the 2014 jury last month by the director of the Academy of France in Villa Medici, Eric de Chassey.
The academy’s website announced her appointment on its website.
However, the office of Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti said on Wednesday: “Her name was put forward by Eric de Chassey… but the minister has decided not to nominate her. The order has not been signed.”
The unpaid jury’s role is to select some 15 people to take up cultural scholarships lasting 12-18 months at the Villa Medici, located in the Villa Borghese in Rome.
The academy was founded in the 17th Century and traditionally awarded scholarships to such disciplines as painting, sculpture and architecture, though in recent years it has been broadened to include literature, film, photography and other cultural areas.
Francois Hollande, who has never married, left his previous partner, fellow Socialist politician Segolene Royal, to be with Valerie Trierweiler.
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France’s President Francois Hollande has said during a news conference that he is experiencing a “difficult moment” in his private life, following claims of an affair with actress Julie Gayet.
However, Francois Hollande refused to answer questions over the report, saying “private matters should be dealt with privately”.
Francois Hollande was speaking at his first news conference since the allegations in the magazine Closer last week.
The president said he would clarify whether Valerie Trierweiler was still first lady before a February trip to the US.
Francois Hollande has said he is experiencing a difficult moment in his private life following claims of an affair with Julie Gayet
Facing hundreds of journalists at the presidential palace, Francois Hollande said it was “neither the time nor the place” for such questions.
He said he would not be drawn on the reports of the affairs with actress Julie Gayet “out of respect for those involved”.
Francois Hollande’s partner Valerie Trierweiler is in hospital suffering from “shock” over the revelations, her aides say.
Valerie Trierweiler was admitted on Friday and is expected to remain in hospital for a few days.
Francois Hollande news conference is a long-planned event aimed at unveiling policies to help France’s struggling economy.
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Francois Hollande’s official partner, Valerie Trierweiler, is to remain in hospital, where she has been since Closer magazine accused the French president of having an affair with actress Julie Gayet.
Valerie Trierweiler had been expected to leave hospital on Monday, but her aides said doctors had told her she needed more rest.
France’s first lady went to hospital on Friday shortly after Closer magazine alleged Francois Hollande was having an affair with film actress Julie Gayet.
Francois Hollande did not deny the report but protested at invasion of his privacy.
The president and Valerie Trierweiler have been together since 2007.
A presidential news conference scheduled for Tuesday on plans to boost the flagging economy now looks likely to be overshadowed by Francois Hollande’s private life, correspondents say.
Valerie Trierweiler went to hospital shortly after Closer magazine alleged Francois Hollande was having an affair with Julie Gayet
Opinion polls already suggest he is one of the most unpopular French presidents ever.
Aides of Valerie Trierweiler, who is Francois Hollande’s official partner and lives at the Elysee Palace, said she went to hospital on Friday for “rest and some tests”.
On Monday, an aide told Europe 1 broadcaster: “The doctors will determine when she can be dismissed from hospital. She needs to recover from the shock she has suffered.”
Le Parisien newspaper quoted one of Valerie Trierweiler’s friends as saying she is willing to forgive Francois Hollande, but wants to know about his intentions as soon as possible.
The French media face strict privacy laws, but the tradition of secrecy over the private lives of public figures has been steadily eroded in recent years.
On Friday, Closer magazine printed a seven-page article about the alleged affair between Hollande Hollande and Julie Gayet.
The article was illustrated with photos showing a man said to be the president visiting a flat near the Elysee Palace at the same time as Julie Gayet.
Francois Hollande, who has never married, left his previous partner – fellow Socialist politician Segolene Royal – to be with Valerie Trierweiler.
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Valerie Trierweiler, President Francois Hollande’s official partner and France’s first lady, has been admitted to hospital after media reports of an alleged affair involving the president.
Valerie Trierweiler’s office said she had been admitted on Friday “for rest and some tests”.
She was admitted a day after Closer magazine published images of Francois Hollande’s alleged affair with actress Julie Gayet.
Francois Hollande has not denied secretly visiting actress Julie Gayet at a flat near the Elysee Palace but protested at the magazine’s invasion of his privacy.
Valerie Trierweiler is expected to leave hospital on Monday, her office told AFP news agency.
Valerie Trierweiler has been admitted to hospital after media reports of an alleged affair involving President Francois Hollande
On Friday, Closer magazine printed a seven-page article about the alleged affair between Francois Hollande and Julie Gayet.
It was illustrated with photos showing a man said to be the president visiting a flat at the same time as Julie Gayet.
The man said to be the president is wearing a helmet and is ferried to and from the building on a moped.
Francois Hollande threatened to sue over the report, which he called an “attack on the right to privacy”, without denying the allegation.
A presidential news conference scheduled for Tuesday on plans to boost the flagging economy now looks like being overshadowed by Francois Hollande’s private life, correspondents say.
Opinion polls already suggest Francois Hollande is the most unpopular president in a generation – one on Thursday indicated that only 25% of French people trusted him.
The French media face strict privacy laws but the tradition of secrecy over the private lives of public figures has been steadily eroded in recent years. But polls suggest the French public appears be averse to reporting politicians’ private lives.
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President Francois Hollande is coming under pressure in France to clarify his personal situation, after Closer magazine reported on his alleged secret affair with actress Julie Gayet.
Francois Hollande is making a key policy announcement on Tuesday amid fears it may be overshadowed by the allegations.
One French paper said the report was “catastrophic” in every way for him.
Francois Hollande said the publication was an “attack on the right to privacy”. He said he might sue, but did not deny it.
A major press conference next week was intended to be a platform for Francois Hollande to launch his economic program for the year ahead – detailing a much-anticipated new tack in efforts to spur growth and create jobs.
Closer magazine reported on Francois Hollande’s alleged secret affair with actress Julie Gayet
Key questions include whether the president is indeed in a relationship with Julie Gayet, and if so what of his recognized partner Valerie Trierweiler, who lives with him at the Elysee palace. and who is scheduled to accompany him on an official visits to the US next month.
Closer magazine’s article, which describes Francois Hollande riding across Paris on the back of a scooter to see his alleged lover, could ruin the president’s year, French papers warned on Saturday.
“Having to explain, a few minutes before sketching out his vision for France, instead, what he has in mind for his relationship [with Valerie Trierweiler] promises to be a highly interesting performance,” the Sud-Ouest newspaper wrote.
L’Alsace newspaper described the allegations as “catastrophic in every possible way for Francois Hollande”.
Meanwhile, L’Est Republicain said in an editorial that Tuesday’s announcement was “expected to mark a political resurgence by confirming the social-democratic shift” the president hinted at in a New Year address, but that “all eyes will now be on the president’s reaction”.
Francois Hollande, who took office in May 2012, has seen public support slipping recently. One poll in November gave him just 15% support, the lowest for any president in the past 50 years.
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French President Francois Hollande hits out at Closer magazine’s claims that he is having an affair with 41-year-old actress Julie Gayet.
But who are the women in the president’s life?
Valerie Trierweiler
Valerie Trierweiler, 48, is Francois Hollande’s official partner.
She is a journalist who writes for Paris Match magazine and has presented discussion programs on French television.
Valerie Trierweiler moved in with Francois Hollande after his official separation from Segolene Royal in 2007, and was divorced from her own husband, with whom she has three children.
When Francois Hollande was elected president in 2012, Valerie Trierweiler moved into the Elysee palace with him and accompanies him on official trips. She incurred Francois Hollande’s wrath in June 2012 after taking to Twitter in to back an opponent of Segolene Royal in parliamentary elections.
Segolene Royal
Segolene Royal, 60, herself a prominent French politician, has four children, now adults, with Francois Hollande, 59.
Francois Hollande and Segolene Royal met at a university party and were once French politics’ power couple, both harboring ambitions to be president of France.
Although they never married, they were together for about three decades, officially splitting up shortly after the 2007 presidential election.
Segolene Royal was the Socialist candidate in that vote – the first woman in France to be nominated by a major party – but lost to Nicolas Sarkozy.
Francois Hollande has not denied a report that he is having a relationship with actress Julie Gayet
Julie Gayet
President Francois Hollande has hit out at what he describes as an invasion of privacy, but has not denied a report that he is having a relationship with actress Julie Gayet, a mother of two. Julie Gayet, 41, is fairly well known in France, if not internationally, and once appeared in one of Francois Hollande’s election campaign television adverts, describing him as “a humble man,” who “really listens”.
Rumors of Francois Hollande and Julie Gayet alleged relationship have been circulating on the internet for many months. Julie Gayet filed a complaint with prosecutors in Paris in March 2013 against various bloggers and websites that were reporting on the rumors.
She played a leading role in Quai d’Orsay, a 2013 satirical film centered on the French foreign ministry. Her filmography also includes the titles Shall We Kiss? and My Best Friend among dozens of others.
Julie Gayet is the daughter of a wealthy surgeon and married the Argentine-born film director and scriptwriter Santiago Amigorena in 2003.
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France’s President Francois Hollande is considering suing Closer magazine after it claimed he was having an affair with actress Julie Gayet.
Francois Hollande told AFP the report was an “attack on the right to privacy”.
The latest edition of the weekly tabloid Closer features seven pages of revelations and photos about Francois Hollande’s alleged affair with Julie Gayet.
Julie Gayet, 41, is an established television and cinema actress who has appeared in more than 50 films.
Rumors of their alleged relationship have been circulating on the internet for many months.
Last March, Julie Gayet filed a complaint with prosecutors in Paris against various bloggers and websites that were reporting on the rumors.
Julie Gayet’s lawyer at the time said there was no basis to the claims.
President Francois Hollande is considering suing Closer magazine after it claimed he was having an affair with actress Julie Gayet
Francois Hollande, 59, told the AFP that he “like every other citizen has a right” to privacy.
In a statement issued personally rather than by his office, Francois Hollande said he was “looking into possible action, including legal action” against Closer magazine.
However, Francois Hollande does not deny the allegation of an affair.
Closer‘s print edition came out on Friday and shows pictures it claims support the rumors that the president routinely spends the night with Julie Gayet at a flat not far from the Elysee Palace.
The pictures show Francois Hollande and Julie Gayet arriving separately. Francois Hollande, wearing a helmet, is on a motorbike driven by a chauffeur.
The magazine claims Francois Hollande’s bodyguard arrives the following morning to deliver croissants.
Francois Hollande lives with his partner Valerie Trierweiler, a journalist for whom he left fellow Socialist politician Segolene Royal, the mother of his four children.
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Attilio Maggiulli has driven his car into the rear gate of the Elysee Palace, the Paris residence of French President Francois Hollande.
Attilio Maggiulli, 67, a theatre director of Italian nationality, was arrested as he tried to force his way through the Grille du Coq gate on Thursday.
Police officials said he was protesting against cuts in subsidies to his small theatre in Paris.
Attilio Maggiulli had already been arrested on Wednesday near the Elysee Palace after pulling a Harlequin puppet from his car and setting it alight.
“He then threw around some leaflets denouncing the cuts in subsidies for his theatre,” a police source told Reuters news agency.
Police had arrested Attilio Maggiulli but let him go shortly afterwards.
Theatre director Attilio Maggiulli was arrested as he tried to force his way through Elysee Palace’s Grille du Coq gate
He was slightly injured in the collision and has been taken to a Paris hospital.
Police sources said he runs a 100-seat theatre in the Montparnasse district.
Attilio Maggiulli has been arrested on suspicion of endangering the lives of others.
“If his aim was to be talked about, he has succeeded. But he may have to pay for that,” a source close to the investigation told AFP.
A local shopkeeper told Le Parisien newspaper she had “heard an almighty bang and seen a grey car”.
“The police and Republican Guards came quickly and pulled out an unconscious man from the vehicle,” she said.
The 19th-century gate was reportedly only scratched in the crash, which happened at slow speed.
It is not clear if President Francois Hollande was in the palace at the time of the incident.
Francois Hollande has pushed though cuts to the French cultural budget in an effort to reduce the government’s deficit.
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French soldiers have reached the town of Bossangoa in the Central African Republic (CAR), which has been paralyzed by communal fighting.
France is deploying 1,600 troops to help end the fighting in the CAR, alongside a larger African Union force.
The CAR has been in turmoil since the president was ousted in March.
Francois Bozize was overthrown by a rebel alliance known as Seleka in March. Its leader, Michel Djotodia, took over as president.
Armed gangs, mainly former Seleka rebels, now control most of the landlocked country.
The town of Bossangoa in the Central African Republic has been paralyzed by communal fighting
Recently the violence in the chronically unstable country has taken on a sectarian tone, with Muslim and Christian communities pitted against one another.
French President Francois Hollande said he believed security could be restored within six months.
Around 80 French troops reached Bossangoa late on Saturday.
Some 30 people have been reported killed there in the past three days and African peacekeepers have been struggling to help nearly 1,000 displaced civilians who have fled to their base.
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President Joachim Gauck has become the first German senior dignitary to visit Oradour-sur-Glane in France, where 642 people were killed by Nazi troops in June 1944.
The ruins of the village are preserved just as they were after the massacre.
Joachim Gauck said that he had accepted a French invitation to visit the site with “gratitude and humility”.
More than 200 children were among the victims of the World War II atrocity that left deep scars in France.
After the war General Charles de Gaulle – who later became France’s president – ordered the village not to be rebuilt but instead remain a memorial to the evils of Nazi occupation. A new village was built nearby.
“I want to reach out to the victims and tell them: I am at your side,” President Joachim Gauck told Europe 1 radio ahead of the visit.
“I am 73-years-old, I was born during the war, I was steeped in the discussion of our guilt… I will tell the victims and their families: <<We know what was done>>.”
President Joachim Gauck has become the first German senior dignitary to visit Oradour-sur-Glane
Joachim Gauck said on Tuesday that he would not refrain from making the point to others during his visit that “the Germany that I have the honor of representing is a different Germany from the one that haunts their memories”.
He was joined in Oradour-sur-Glane by his French counterpart, Francois Hollande, and together they visited the village square, where residents were rounded up by Nazi troops ostensibly to have their identity papers checked.
They also walked around a church where women and children were incarcerated before it was set on fire. The village’s men were taken to a barn where they were shot with machine-guns.
The two presidents were accompanied by two of the three living survivors, including 88-year-old Robert Hebras.
He was 19 at the time of the massacre, and survived because he was buried under the bodies of other men who had been shot.
“I was consumed by hatred and vengeance for a long time,” he was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
At a joint news conference on Tuesday, Francois Hollande praised Joachim Gauck’s decision to go to the massacre site as a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation.
In 2010, Germany reopened a war crimes case into the attack when a historian discovered documents implicating six suspects who were now in their 80s.
Prosecutors said 12 members of the SS-Panzer Division “Das Reich” – which had spent three years on the Russian front before being deployed to the Normandy battlefields to fight Allied invasion forces – were suspected of involvement in the massacre.
The reason for the mass killings is unclear. One theory is that the Nazis sought to avenge the kidnapping of one of their officers, but another is that Das Reich troops were angered by what they believed was theft of a large amount of gold by villagers.
President Joachim Gauck, a former East German human rights activist, has paid two other visits to the sites of Nazi mass killings in Europe – the Czech village of Lidice, near Prague, and the Italian hamlet of Sant’Anna di Stazzema in Tuscany.
In 1984, French President Francois Mitterrand and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl joined hands while attending a memorial service for fallen soldiers at the World War I battlefield of Verdun.
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French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is presenting intelligence to MPs which he says shows Syria used chemical weapons.
The dossier is said to show that Syria has large chemical stockpiles and was behind a chemical attack which the US says killed more than 1,400 people.
France and the US are both pushing for punitive military action against the Syrian regime. The UK parliament has voted to stay out of such a raid.
Damascus denies the attack, blaming rebel forces for the use of chemicals.
However, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he is personally convinced that a chemical attack took place and that the government of President Bashar al-Assad was responsible.
There must be “a firm international response” to deter any future use of such weapons, he said, or else it would send a “dangerous signal to dictators all over the world”.
French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault is presenting intelligence to MPs which shows Syria used chemical weapons
But he added that he did envisage NATO having a role in such action, saying he would expect any military response to be “a very short, measured, targeted operation” and that the alliance’s resources would not be needed.
Meanwhile fighting has continued across Syria, in a conflict which has already left an estimated 100,000 people dead since 2011. On Monday, activists said 20 rebel fighters were killed in an army ambush in Adra, north-east of Damascus, AFP news agency reports.
The alleged chemical attack took place in the Gouta, an eastern area of the capital on 21 August. The US says 426 children were among the more than 1,400 people killed.
The US administration has already presented its case that the Assad regime was behind the attack, and now Jean-Marc Ayrault will present France’s own intelligence dossier to parliamentary leaders.
“We are going to give the MPs everything we have – classified until now – to enable every one of them to take on board the reality of the unacceptable attack,” he said on Monday.
French MPs are due to debate the issue at an extraordinary session of parliament on Wednesday.
President Francois Hollande is constitutionally able to order an attack without parliamentary approval, but there is growing pressure for a vote on Syria, as happened in the UK and has been promised in the US.
US lawmakers are due to reconvene next week, and White House officials have said that when it comes to a vote, they believe there will be enough support for the president.
Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday samples from hair and blood gathered after the August 21 attack had tested positive for “signatures of sarin”, and that he was confident Congress would give its approval for strikes, “because they understand the stakes”.
However, some lawmakers have expressed doubts about President Barack Obama’s plan for a “limited, narrow” military operation, questioning its purpose and effectiveness.
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President Francois Hollande has announced that France is still ready to take action in Syria alongside the US, despite UK MPs blocking British involvement.
Francois Hollande said a military strike within days could not be ruled out.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said after the UK vote that Washington would continue to seek a coalition.
The UN is investigating claims that the Syrian forces of President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons. Bashar al-Assad denies the claims, blaming rebels.
UN chemical weapons inspectors visited a hospital in a government-controlled area of Damascus on Friday.
They are due to give their preliminary findings to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon over the weekend.
Francois Hollande told Le Monde newspaper that the UK vote, in which parliament rejected a government motion supporting the principle of military action, made no difference to France’s position.
“Each country is sovereign to participate or not in an operation. That is valid for Britain as it is for France,” he said.
He said that if the UN Security Council was unable to act, a coalition would form including the Arab League and European countries.
“But there are few countries which can have the capacity of enforcing any sanction through the appropriate measures,” he said.
“France will be part of it. France is ready.”
Francois Hollande ruled out strikes while the UN inspectors were in Syria. However he did not rule out the possibility that military action could be taken before next Wednesday, when the French parliament is due to debate the issue.
France is still ready to take action in Syria alongside the US, despite UK MPs blocking British involvement
Neither France nor the US need parliamentary approval for action, and Secretary of State John Kerry said the US could not be held to the foreign policy of others.
The UK vote was welcomed in Russia, Syria’s main international ally.
Moscow said it reflected a growing public understanding of the dangers of an attack.
Syrian MPs are also delighted with the UK vote.
They believe a letter they sent to the UK parliament inviting their British counterparts to inspect the evidence of chemical attacks had helped sway the vote against military action.
China, which has vetoed previous UN Security Council resolutions against Syria, reiterated on Friday that no action should be taken until the UN inspectors have reported on their findings.
And Germany said of military action that “such participation has not been sought nor is it being considered”.
Officials in the US and UK had been insistent throughout the week that the Assad regime had carried out a poison-gas attack in eastern Damascus on August 21 in which hundreds were killed.
However, British PM David Cameron told parliament on Thursday he could not be 100% sure.
In the US, government officials briefed a Congressional committee on the case for launching action against Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
Eliot Engel, the top Democratic member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters after the briefing that officials had said it was “beyond a doubt that chemical weapons were used, and used intentionally by the Assad regime”.
He said officials had cited evidence including “intercepted communications from high-level Syrian officials”.
Reports in the US media this week described Syrian officials suggesting in phone conversations that the chemical weapons attack had been more devastating than was intended.
More than 100,000 people are estimated to have died since the conflict erupted in Syria in March 2011, and the conflict has produced at least 1.7 million refugees.
Forces which could be used against Syria:
• Four US destroyers – USS Gravely, USS Ramage, USS Barry and USS Mahan – are in the eastern Mediterranean, equipped with cruise missiles. The missiles can also be fired from submarines, but the US Navy does not reveal their locations
• Airbases at Incirlik and Izmir in Turkey, and in Jordan, could be used to carry out strikes
• Two aircraft carriers – USS Nimitz and USS Harry S Truman are in the wider region
• French aircraft carrierCharles de Gaulle is currently in Toulon in the western Mediterranean
• French Raffale and Mirage aircraft can also operate from Al-Dhahra airbase in the UAE
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France is preparing to celebrate its national day – known as Bastille Day – as investigations continue into the country’s worst rail disaster for 25 years.
Six people were killed when a train derailed at Bretigny-sur-Orge, south of Paris, at 17:14 on Friday.
The French train operator SNCF says the crash may have been caused by a fault on the tracks.
President Francois Hollande is expected to call for solidarity in a traditional Bastille Day broadcast on Sunday.
Francois Hollande will give a series of television interviews as workers continue to inspect the wreckage.
A large crane arrived at the site on Saturday evening to lift away the remains of carriages, and to find out whether there are still bodies lying beneath.
French media are reporting that it could still take a number of days to clear the derailed cars.
Transport routes were particularly busy at the time of the crash, as France began a long weekend for Bastille Day.
The July 14 celebrations, marking the start of the French Revolution in 1789, traditionally include an annual military parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris.
The July 14 celebrations, marking the start of the French Revolution in 1789, traditionally include an annual military parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris
A minute’s silence was held across France’s train network at noon on Saturday to commemorate the victims of the accident.
Those killed were four men and two women, aged between 19 and 82. Thirty people were injured, eight seriously.
SNCF said 385 passengers were on board when the train crashed and the station platforms were crowded.
The train had just left Paris on Friday afternoon and was heading for Limoges when six carriages derailed as the train passed through Bretigny-sur-Orge station at 85mph.
The train’s third and fourth carriages derailed first and the others followed. One mounted the station platform.
Eye witnesses described the train flying into the air and flipping over. Some said it was like scenes from a “war zone” with people running and screaming.
Giving its initial findings, SNCF management told reporters a metal bar connecting two rails had become detached at points 200 m outside the station.
“It moved into the centre of the switch and in this position it prevented the normal passage of the train’s wheels and it may have caused the derailment,” said Pierre Izard, SNCF’s general manager for infrastructure.
An SNCF inquiry is now expected to focus on how the piece of metal had become detached.
Separate investigations are also being conducted by judicial authorities and France’s BEA safety agency.
Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier has praised the driver of the train, saying his quick actions averted a worse accident.
Frederic Cuvillier said the driver had “absolutely extraordinary reflexes in that he sounded the alarm immediately, preventing a collision with another train coming in the opposite direction and which would have hit the derailing carriages within seconds”.
The worst railway accident in France in living memory took place at the Gare de Lyon in Paris in 1988, when two trains collided, killing 56 people.
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France’s President Francois Hollande has made an embarrassing slip of the tongue, confusing Japan and China, as he spoke in French at a news conference in Tokyo.
Referring to the Algerian hostage crisis in January, in which 10 Japanese people were killed, he said he had expressed “the condolences of the French people to the Chinese people”.
Francois Hollande has made an embarrassing slip of the tongue, confusing Japan and China, as he spoke in French at a news conference in Tokyo
Francois Hollande did not correct his mistake.
Relations between Japan and China are often frosty, colored by history and by more recent territorial disputes.
Polls in both countries suggest a mutual distrust and neither side’s nationals like to be confused with the other.
The interpreter did make a correction, in her simultaneous translation.
But at least one Japanese journalist picked up on the error.
Francois Hollande is on a three-day state visit to Japan, the first by a French president in 17 years.
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France’s President Francois Hollande has called for “eradication” of the world’s tax havens and told French banks they must declare all of their subsidiaries.
Francois Hollande was speaking after presenting a draft law aimed at “moralizing” French public life – a response to the tax scandal that has shaken his presidency.
France’s ex-Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac has been charged with fraud over a secret Swiss bank account.
President Francois Hollande said a new central agency would fight fraud and corruption.
France’s President Francois Hollande has called for “eradication” of the world’s tax havens
Earlier the French Socialist government set a deadline of April 15 for ministers to declare their assets, as part of the new transparency drive.
Jerome Cahuzac admitted last week that he had hidden about 600,000 euros ($770,000) in a Swiss bank account, causing shock in France. He has now been expelled from the Socialist Party for lying about his financial affairs.
Addressing a news conference on Wednesday, Francois Hollande said “tax havens must be eradicated in Europe and worldwide”.
“I won’t hesitate to consider as a tax haven any country that refuses to co-operate fully with France.”
The presidentsaid French banks “will have to publish every year the full list of their subsidiaries in the world, country by country”.
They will also have to explain their business, Francois Hollande said.
“In other words it won’t be possible for a bank to hide transactions carried out in a tax haven.”
France’s President Francois Hollande is facing a financial scandal after it emerged that his former Socialist Party treasurer Jean-Jacques Augier invested in two Cayman Islands offshore companies.
Jean-Jacques Augier, who managed Francois Hollande’s campaign funds, told the daily Le Monde that there was “nothing illegal” in his tax haven affairs.
Meanwhile, ex-budget minister Jerome Cahuzac has been charged with fraud.
Ministers are under pressure to reveal what they knew about his tax evasion.
Speaking during a two-day visit to Morocco, Francois Hollande insisted he knew “nothing” about the “private activities” of Jean-Jacques Augier.
He said it was up to France’s tax authorities to investigate the matter, AFP reported.
Francois Hollande is facing a financial scandal after it emerged that his former Socialist Party treasurer Jean-Jacques Augier invested in two Cayman Islands offshore companies
On Wednesday Francois Hollande used a national address to promise that in future all ministers and MPs would have to declare fully their personal finances.
The pressure is growing for a full government reshuffle – just 10 months after Francois Hollande took office.
Jerome Cahuzac admitted this week that he had hidden about 600,000 euros ($770,000) in a Swiss bank account.
French newspapers are calling it the biggest political crisis for Francois Hollande since his election last year, the AFP news agency reports.
He had promised voters morality and integrity in public life after what were nicknamed the “bling-bling” years of his conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.
But this year Francois Hollande’s opinion poll ratings have slumped, as the country remains mired in recession and unemployment at 10.6%.
In the latest financial twist, Le Monde reports that Francois Hollande’s ex-treasurer Jean-Jacques Augier became a shareholder in a Cayman Islands company called International Bookstores Ltd in 2005.
Jean-Jacques Augier said that venture came about because of a large publishing investment in China.
He insisted that he had “no personal bank account in the Caymans nor any direct personal investment in that territory”.
But Francois Hollande’s administration has been chasing the wealthy with such investments abroad, our correspondent says. So Jean-Jacques Augier’s affairs are a problem for him.
Earlier this week it emerged that the former budget minister, Jerome Cahuzac, had lied to the president, parliament and the public about the offshore accounts he had held for more than 20 years.
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