THE French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has dropped his legal action against a magazine that claimed he had sent a text message to his ex-wife, Cecilia, offering to call off his marriage to Carla Bruni if she would go back to him.
The latest storyline in the Sarkozy soap opera was revealed yesterday by the new first lady, in an apparent attempt to clear up the scandal surrounding the alleged text.
It came ahead of the couple's official visit to Britain next week, when they
will be the guests of the Queen at Windsor Castle.
Mr Sarkozy lodged the complaint against Le Nouvel Observateur last month after the left-leaning weekly reported he had sent a text to Cecilia Ciganer- Albeniz eight days before his marriage to Ms Bruni, saying: "If you come back, I'll call it all off."
It was reported Airy Routier, the journalist who wrote the story, had sent a letter to Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy, apologising for the article. But he stood by his report, saying his sources were "set in concrete".
When questioned by police, Ms Ciganer-Albeniz, who is due to marry long-time boyfriend and events organiser Richard Attias in New York on Saturday, is said to have denied receiving such a text message.
Mr Sarkozy filed a lawsuit against the weekly's website, claiming falsification, among other charges, on 7 February.
After keeping quiet for weeks, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy broke her silence yesterday in Le Monde, announcing her husband had dropped his action against Le Nouvel Observateur after her apology from Mr Routier.
In an article entitled "Stop the slander", she accused Le Nouvel Observateur of failing to check the allegation and berated the weekly for having betrayed its journalistic charter in which its owner and editors pledged "to present the facts to the reader with the greatest rigour and the greatest honesty".
Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy goes on to accuse the media of falling standards of accuracy, asking: "If, from now on, rumour is used as the basis for news, if fantasies become scoops, where are we headed? If major newspapers fail to sift out rumour from facts, who will do it? If, like the trashiest of magazines, Le Nouvel Observateur, betraying its charter, its calling and even its name, ceases to observe but makes up the stories it tells, what defence is left to us against the hysteria of the age?"
Presidential aides are said to have advised Mr Sarkozy to maintain a lower profile to avoid the negative publicity he has received in recent months, with critics accusing him of being too concerned with his private life.
Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy, whose past boyfriends included Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and Donald Trump, has won plaudits for getting off to an exemplary start at the Élysée Palace. However, her less modest past is due to catch up with her next week, with GQ reportedly set to publish photographs of the ex-model, scantily clad, taken before she met Mr Sarkozy last November.
PUTTING THE GLOSS ON LIFE IN THE PALACECARLA Bruni has taken advantage of her new celebrity status and invited a glossy Italian magazine into the Élysée Palace for a ten-page photoshoot.
Carla, 40, is pictured in her office, in the kitchens of the Élysée overseeing the menu for an official dinner and in the private apartment she shares with the president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Dressed in tight black trousers and an open-necked, white, silk blouse, the former model and singer even spoke of her new job and said: "To begin with I was a little frightened because it's difficult to represent France, but now I am delighted and proud to do it.''
In the interview with Oggi, Carla reveals that she was writing new songs in the apartments and how she liked to mix and match the furniture with trendy chic new designs and antique fixtures.
