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President Hollande 'to announce separation from First Lady Valérie Trierweiler' Presidential office denies reports Hollande will announce separation from Valérie Trierweiler
(about 2 hours later)
French President François Hollande is expected to announce his separation from partner ValérieTrierweiler on Saturday following a media storm over allegations he is having an affair with an actress, according to the Journal du Dimanche. François Hollande’s office has denied reports that he was due to announce his split from Valérie Trierweiler this afternoon.
Ms Trierweiler, 48, Hollande's partner since 2006, plans to travel to India on Sunday for a charity trip and the president wants to settle the issue of their future before her departure, the newspaper said. French media reported that the President was expected to formally announce his separation from the First Lady amid the ongoing scandal over his alleged affair with an actress.
"The press release from the Elysee Palace should be released sometime today," the respected national weekly said on its website, without citing its sources. But a spokesman for the Elysee Palace has told the BBC the rumours are untrue.
A spokesman for the president declined to comment on the report, and Trierweiler's spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment. He said: “There will be no announcement today [Saturday]. They are false rumours circulating in the French media.”
Two weeks ago, celebrity magazine Closer published a report that Hollande was having an affair with French actress Julie Gayet. It ran pictures of what it said was the president wearing a motorcycle helmet arriving via scooter to visit Gayet for nocturnal trysts. Ms Trierweiler, who has been with Mr Hollande since 2006, was reportedly planning to travel to India on a charity trip.
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 euro zone's second-biggest economy in the face of high unemployment. The President, 59, was thought to be keen to settle their relationship difficulties before her departure, according to the Journal du Dimanche.
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. The scandal broke when celebrity magazine Closer published several pages of photographs claiming to show Mr Hollande and Julie Gayet in a secretive tryst at an apartment in Paris.
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 per cent, firmly on a downward trend. After arriving on a scooter wearing a helmet, the man appearing to be the President disappeared inside and his bodyguard was pictured in the morning “delivering croissants”.
He has four children from a previous relationship with Segolene Royal, a senior member of his Socialist Party and a 2007 presidential candidate. Royal announced their separation just after she lost the 2007 election to Nicolas Sarkozy. 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.
Ms Trierweiler, an arts columnist for weekly magazine Paris Match, is not married to Hollande but assumed the role of first lady at official functions following his election in May 2012. A press conference to unveil the economic plans was overshadowed by questions over Mr Hollande's private life, as was a trip to Rome to meet the pope on Friday.
Reuters Opinion polls rank the 59-year-old as the most unpopular President in modern France.
He has four children from a previous relationship with Segolene Royal, a senior member of his Socialist Party and a 2007 presidential candidate.
She announced their separation just after she lost the 2007 election to Nicolas Sarkozy.
Ms Trierweiler, an arts columnist for weekly magazine Paris Match, is not married to the President but assumed the role of First Lady at official functions following his election in May 2012.
Additional reporting by Reuters