C’est fini

The most distressing news of the week may be the suggestion that the world’s most entertaining love affair — between Nicolas Sarkozy and his First Lady, Carla Bruni — is drawing to a close.

The most distressing news of the week may be the suggestion that the world’s most entertaining love affair — between Nicolas Sarkozy and his First Lady, Carla Bruni — is drawing to a close. The rumours began on Twitter, where they could be easily ignored, but now Le Journal du Dimanche has confirmed what it calls the story of the year. The presidential marriage is ‘breathing its last breaths’, it says.

Perhaps it was optimistic to hope that such a gripping union could last. Sarkozy himself has been married three times, while Bruni is a pop-songstress who says she’s bored by monogamy and entitled her second album ‘No Promises’. The cruel truth might be that even grand passion can rarely compensate for a four-inch difference in height.

By way of consolation, there seems every chance that the end of the presidential relationship will be just as complicated and colourful as its beginning. Carla is said to have fallen for a singer called Benjamin; meanwhile, it is reported that her husband has found solace in the muscular arms of his ecology minister, the former karate champ-ion Chantal Jouanno.

The rumours have yet to be confirmed by any official presidential source. What’s certain, however, is that, whereas Sarko’s infidelity would mean political death in Britain, across the channel, it can only boost his chances of re-election.