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French President Francois Hollande has confirmed that he has split with his long-standing partner Valerie Trierweiler after his affair with an actress nearly 20 years his junior. |
The announcement came after a day of rumours in the French media that Hollande would formally announce the rupture yesterday, on the eve of a planned visit by Trierweiler to India for charity work.
Saying that he was speaking as a private individual, Hollande announced: “I wish to make it known that I have ended my partnership with Valerie Trierweiler.”
Trierweiler, 48, remains holed up in a presidential residence in Versailles outside Paris after leaving hospital last Saturday, where she was treated for a bout of “tiredness” brought on by press revelations of Hollande’s affair with actress Julie Gayet, 41.
Trierweiler is due to fly to Mumbai today for a charity trip organised by French relief organisation Action Against Hunger, in what will be her first public appearance since the scandal broke.
Hollande, 59, announced his separation from Segolene Royal, a senior member of his Socialist party and a presidential candidate in 2007, just after she lost the election to Nicolas Sarkozy.
Trierweiler is not married to Hollande but assumed the role of first lady at official functions after Hollande’s election in 2012.
Two weeks ago, celebrity magazine Closer published a report that Hollande was having an affair with Gayet.
It ran pictures of what it said was the president wearing a motorcycle helmet arriving via scooter to visit Gayet for nocturnal trysts.
The ensuing media storm has diverted public attention from a shift Hollande has made this month towards more business-friendly policies, which he hopes will revive the eurozone’s second-biggest economy in the face of high unemployment.
A press conference to unveil the economic plans was overshadowed by questions over Hollande’s private life, as was a trip to Rome to meet the pope on Friday.
Hollande, 59, is the most unpopular president in modern France, according to polls. He has struggled to live up to a promise to get unemployment, currently stuck near 11%, firmly on a downward trend.
He has four children from his relationship with Royal.
Trierweiler, was an arts columnist for weekly magazine Paris Match.