Washington: President Nicolas Sarkozy
said rumors about the state of his marriage to former
supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy were of "no importance" to the
French first couple.
"This whole little business has no importance for us.
It is part of modern life, of a system," he said in a
interview yesterday on US television network CBS after he
arrived in Washington for a nuclear security summit.
"That's the way it is. There is no point commenting on
it. In any case there's nothing we can do," he added.
The rumors appeared last month on Internet sites and
were picked up by some major newspapers outside France but not
by the mainstream French media.
Sarkozy insisted in the interview that he and Bruni
had "a very calm life.
"We are very close to one another and all this has
been greatly exaggerated," he said.
"I am sorry when all around us, or because of us,
people get too excited."
Bruni has said in interviews that she would prefer
Sarkozy not to run for a second term as president, citing the
pressures of the presidential life.
She spoke out on Thursday to dismiss gossip about
their marriage and played down claims by Sarkozy aides that
the stories were part of a deliberate smear campaign against
the president.
"These are insignificant rumors that count for
nothing," she told the radio station Europe 1.
The head of France's DCRI domestic intelligence
agency, Bernard Squarcini, said on Wednesday that French spies
had attempted to track down the source of the rumors.
A French court yesterday heard a lawsuit by pop singer
Benjamin Biolay, who is suing the television news channel
France 24 for violating his privacy by airing the suggestion
that he was having an affair with Bruni.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, April 13, 2010, 19:11