Cecilia Sarkozy and one of her daughters.
A long and good story about France’s First lady in the Sunday Times. Some quotes:
The deployment of Cécilia [to free the Bulgarian medics] helped to clinch a deal, certainly: Muammar Gadaffi, the eccentric – some say romantic – Libyan leader fell quickly under the charm of the tall, chic Frenchwoman as they chatted in his bedouin tent. “It was hard for him to say no to her,” a diplomat said.
Cécilia’s style has drawn comparisons to Jackie Kennedy. A habit of bolting, however, makes her, to some, a potential liability who has already driven “Sarko” to despair by leaving him twice for another man.
Sarkozy was smitten with Cécilia, a public relations expert and parliamentary assistant, at first sight in 1984 when, as the 29-year-old mayor of the affluent Paris suburb of Neuilly, it fell to him to marry her to Jacques Martin, a television presenter 21 years her senior who has been described as France’s Bruce Forsyth.
“What was I doing, marrying her to another man?” Sarkozy asked later. “I fell in love with her almost immediately. I thought, ‘I must have that woman. She’s mine’.”
So what now for this international woman of mystery? Sarkozy is eager to free Ingrid Betancourt, the Colombian presidential candidate kidnapped five years ago by left-wing guerrillas. And the government has also has set its sights on liberating Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace prizewinning pro-democracy leader who has been under house arrest in Burma for 12 of the past 18 years.
Cécilia may have to invest in a tropical wardrobe.
