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Hollande visits Trierweiler in hospital as fresh affair allegations are published Hollande visits Trierweiler in hospital as fresh affair allegations are published
(about 5 hours later)
François Hollande has visited France's first lady for the first time since she was hospitalised for rest following a gossip magazine's report that he was having an affair with an actor. François Hollande has finally been allowed to visit his stricken partner in hospital a week after she was admitted following revelations that he was having an affair.
An official at the presidential palace said on Friday that Hollande had visited Valérie Trierweiler the previous evening. Doctors had previously prevented the French president, 59, from visiting his partner, saying she was tired and needed a complete break. The French president visited Valérie Trierweiler on Thursday evening, according to the Élysée Palace, which is struggling to contain the biggest crisis of Hollande's 20-month presidency.
Meanwhile the tumult surrounding Hollande has grown with the publication of a string of further allegations concerning his personal life. Trierweiler has been suffering from severe shock and depression after news of Hollande's alleged secret meetings with the actress Julie Gayet hit the headlines last weekend. Earlier reports said the president had sent flowers and chocolates to her but had been banned from seeing her by doctors concerned about her health.
In a second "special edition" that went on sale on Friday morning, Closer claimed to have more allegations about the on-off relationship between Hollande and the actor Julie Gayet, which the magazine said had lasted for more than two years and included weekends spent together in the south of France. Trierweiler, 48, was admitted to hospital last Friday after Closer magazine published a special edition devoted to Hollande's alleged affair, with pictures apparently showing the French leader on a scooter travelling to meet Gayet at a flat a stone's throw from the Élysée Palace.
The magazine alleges that far from being simply a fling or a recent romance, the couple have been living an "eventful idyll" since 2011, shortly before Hollande's campaign to be the Socialist party's nominee in the presidential election the following year. Friends told journalists that Trierweiler was "very tired, to the point of not being able to stand" and needed "space to get back on her feet". She was also said to be suffering from low blood pressure.
During the past few years, Closer claimed, the couple have endured "ruptures and reconciliations". The alleged affair has done little to improve Hollande's already rock-bottom popularity rating (though it has risen a few percentage points), and it has presented him with considerable problems, not least concerning Trierweiler's status as a de facto first lady with a publicly funded staff and office.
Trierweiler was taken to hospital a week ago after Closer published revelations of Hollande's alleged affair. On Thursday, RTL radio claimed to have spoken to Trierweiler, who said she did not feel abandoned by him. According to the centre-left news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Hollande wanted to persuade his partner to sign a joint announcement on their formal separation last weekend.
"François Hollande has not yet visited her in hospital, but Valérie Trierweiler doesn't want people to think he is neglecting her at such a painful time," RTL said on Thursday. "She has let it be known that it is the doctors who have banned the head of state from coming to see her … a widespread practice in cases of psychological distress." With a major press conference arranged for a few days later, at which the president was due to announce a number of major political moves, making such a public declaration was seen as the "least worst solution", said the magazine, citing Trierweiler's friends.
RTL said Trierweiler was "temporarily confined and being kept at a distance from her entourage to give her space to get back on her feet. But François Hollande speaks to the care team and has met them personally." However, the centre-right Le Point magazine said Trierweiler had woken last Friday in a state of "deep despair" after Hollande had confessed to the affair in a "cold and implacable" manner, and she had asked to be taken to hospital.
Trierweiler, 48, was said on Thursday to be "very tired to the point of not being able to stand up", and suffering from low blood pressure as well as low morale. "She hopes to leave with her head held high and shows a willingness to fight at least for her dignity." France is famously insouciant over the private lives of its leaders and Hollande has made clear his indignation at having his personal life raked over. But that has not stopped the media from showing almost Anglo-Saxon zeal in relaying the most lurid of the allegations.
RTL said Trierweiler had let it be known that she had not had a "nervous breakdown" when Hollande confessed to his alleged affair with Gayet, 41, hours before Closer magazine published its claims that Hollande had been secretly leaving the Elysée Palace to meet the actor. Other newspapers and magazines claimed Trierweiler was determined to "stand by her man" and fight to save her relationship with Hollande. It emerged On Friday that Gayet, who is suing Closer magazine for €50,000 (£41,000) damages for the original revelations, was forced to ring Europe 1 radio station to deny rumours sweeping the internet that she was pregnant by Hollande.
Le Nouvel Observateur said she "has not the slightest intention of packing her bags". "She's OK to forgive, but not OK to leave," it said. Gayet's former husband Santiago Amigorena, with whom the actress has two sons, told Europe 1 radio that: "Julie is very calm with all this and very sure of herself because nobody's done anything wrong, nobody's cheated on anyone."
In its second round of "exclusive" revelations about the personal life of the French president, Closer reported on Friday that Hollande had met Gayet at an informal gathering of friends and political allies in a Paris restaurant in 2011 after the actor supported Ségolène Royal, Hollande's former partner and mother of his four children, in her unsuccessful battle against Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election. Royal had hoped to stand again, but was beaten to the nomination in a vote of party members. After Hollande dodged questions about the alleged affair with Gayet at the press conference on Tuesday, Closer stepped up the pressure by publishing a second special edition on Friday giving further details of their alleged relationship.
Closer claimed on Friday that the pair would originally meet at an apartment in rue du Faubourg-Saint Honoré, not far from the Elysée, but stopped meeting there because a concierge had recognised them and tried to take, and sell, photographs. On Friday, Closer said that far from being a fling or a recent romance, the pair had been secretly meeting for more than two years and spent weekends away in the south of France in the picturesque village of Mougins, near Cannes on the Riviera, where the president owns a villa. The pair were also reportedly photographed together at his previous parliamentary constituency town of Tulle in the Corrèze in central France, while Trierweiler was on holiday in Greece waiting for the president to join her.
The magazine quoted a restaurant owner in Mougins – a picturesque village outside Cannes where Hollande has a flat – who claimed to remember the couple dining there. Closer also reported that Gayet was seen with him in Tulle, his former parliamentary constituency, and claimed that she introduced the president to her grandmother and members of her family who live outside Paris. There were also details of other meetings at a second flat in Paris in a chic arrondissement not far from the Élysée, near where Gayet has a film production company.
After Hollande was elected president in May 2012, he celebrated with Trierweiler. A few months later the president and his so-called "first girlfriend" spent part of the summer holiday at the official residence at the Fort de Bregançon on the French riviera. The magazine said the actress had introduced the president to her grandmother and other family members, and described the relationship between her and the French leader as an "eventful idyll" that had survived "splits and reconciliations".
It was, said Closer, to be the presidential couple's last summer holiday together. In 2013, Trierweiler flew to Greece with two of her sons, while Hollande retreated to his constituency at Tulle in the Correze, where the magazine claimed he and Gayet were seen walking together. Closer also had photographs showing Gayet at a Socialist party meeting where Hollande was confirmed as presidential candidate, sitting just a few rows behind him. Gayet featured in a political campaign video for Hollande, in which she gushed of being "impressed" by him and had, Closer said, "big stars in her eyes".
Gayet has launched a lawsuit against Closer for breach of privacy, claiming €50,000 (£41,000) in damages and demanding publication of the legal award across half of the front page. News of Hollande's visit to Trierweiler's hospital bedside was reported by French radio station, France Inter, the equivalent of Radio 4. It said until then the couple had only communicated by phone and SMS.
Her ex-husband Santiago Amigorena, with whom she has two sons, told Europe 1 radio: "Julie is very calm with all this and very sure of herself because nobody's done anything wrong, nobody's cheated on anyone." The furore took a farcical twist when a lorry driver dumped several tonnes of horse manure outside the Assemblée Nationale, France's lower house of parliament. His lorry bore the words: "Out with Hollande and all politicians." Police had to bring in a digger to clear the manure.
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