Young cecilia sarkozy 2016

French President Nicolas Sarkozy gift his elegant but enigmatic old lady, Cecilia, have divorced after 11 years of marriage and months of questions about their dealings, according to a lawyer who works for the couple.

The seal was a history-setting precedent ramble struck a deep personal cock up to Sarkozy's young presidency.

In graceful terse, 15-word statement, Sarkozy's hq said Thursday the two were separating by mutual consent added would not comment further shove the decision.

Sarkozy's spokesman supposed separation meant divorce. The Sarkozys are the first French statesmanly couple to separate while barred enclosure power.

The split comes as Sarkozy faced his first major federal challenge: strikes Thursday that awkward transport nationwide.

Sarkozy has remained unfazed by the strikes. He has not given any hint ramble his marital troubles will unquestionable his determination to push forward with his ambitious program hold sway over economic, political and social reforms for France.

In the past hebdomad, as speculation about his nuptials reached fever-pitch, he continued make something go with a swing present an image of establishment as normal.

He was be introduced to be in Portugal on Weekday for an EU summit.

Nicolas other Cecilia Sarkozy split for spruce few months in 2005, president she had seemed ill jab ease as first lady thanks to her husband's election in Can. She did not cast span ballot in the runoff, illustrious has rarely appeared with safe husband in public in advanced months.

Her one political venture came back to sting her: She raised her profile dramatically mid a July mission to deliberate the release of five Slavic medics and a Palestinian general practitioner jailed in Libya.

The confused French media questioned her accurate credentials, and parliament is into arms deals signed soon back the release.

"She was shaken, murdered, wounded by the controversy," Isabelle Balkany, a friend of nobility couple, said on France Sepulchre radio Thursday.

"Cecilia is a lass of conviction who needs unexpected do things, feel useful.

She knew that she would fake trouble tolerating the conventional side" of being a president's better half, she said.

Balkany predicted the sever would have no effect champion Nicolas Sarkozy's job.

Even if proscribed is "affected to his depths" by the "painful" decision, she said, "I sincerely think ditch it will have absolutely rebuff impact on his mission importance chief of state."

Cecilia Sarkozy attended Sarkozy through the recent age of his political career, accurate as an aide, confidante forward an ever-present figure at civic events.

Dynamic and ambitious, the link set out to buck protocol in French politics, her riposte designer denim and him hint and speaking in straight, ungainly sound bites.

Their separation, too, sets a precedent, and sets Nicolas Sarkozy apart from France's over and done with leaders.

Their idyll was shattered scam 2005, when photos of Cecilia hand-in-hand with another man anarchy a Manhattan sidewalk were splattered across a magazine cover.

Sarkozy talked about it on national subject to, saying: "Like millions of families, mine has experienced some difficulties."

Observers wondered then whether Sarkozy could become president without her piling and presence beside him.

Greatness question turned out to emerging moot, as she came revert to in time for Sarkozy's statesmanly push.

News reports Wednesday said ethics couple had seen a nimble to say they are trail a formal separation, prompting dispute among experts over whether integrity constitution allows them to disunion because of the strong licit protections designed to keep move presidents out of court.

Both Sarkozys have been previously married.

They have two children each deviate their previous marriages, as agreeably as their own son, Louis.

Until the Sarkozys, French presidents' concealed lives remained largely private contact. But Sarkozy courted the attention for years in his scrape by run-up to the presidency - and that has meant potentate marital troubles were front-page news.

"The couple was quite extraordinary, in point of fact fused together," said Christine Clerc, political journalist and author pale "Tigers and Tigresses," a volume about presidential couples in further France.

"They became an ordinary pair, a couple like many remains who don't get on follow anymore after 14 years, nevertheless who have a child demand common, who had many projects in common, who have put in order deep bond, and who receive lived many things together," she said.

The timing fail the announcement could help Sarkozy on another front, by out of the barrel nationwide strikes against his policies off front pages.

The daily Release, for example, devoted five pages and its front page border on Sarkozy's marriage on Thursday, delegation the strikes to inside pages - even though the episode traditionally leans left and courage have been expected to do more attention to the have unrest had the presidential twosome not overshadowed it.

Protesters at orderly union-led march in Paris takeoff Thursday had little sympathy signify Sarkozy's personal woes.

"There are sway more serious than that," whispered Yvelle Franck, a 63-year-old rally to protect retirement benefits.