FRANCE: What drew Bruni to Sarkozy? Gardening
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REPORTING FROM PARIS -- So what was it that attracted the tall, glamorous former supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni to France’s short, hyperactive President Nicolas Sarkozy? Flowers, apparently.
According to an interview France’s first lady gave to the BBC World Service, Bruni was swept off her feet by the president’s astonishing knowledge of the Latin names of blooms in the Elysée Palace gardens.
“He was giving me all these details about tulips and roses and I said to myself: ‘My God, I must marry this man, he’s the president, and he knows everything about flowers as well. This is incredible,’” said the Italian-born Bruni-Sarkozy, who is expecting the couple’s first child -– his fourth and her second –- in October.
The couple wed in February 2008 after a whirlwind romance and a few weeks after Sarkozy, 56, divorced his second wife Cecilia, who now lives in New York.
Bruni, 43, who before marrying the president was linked romantically with Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, and once said monogamy “bores me,” was less inclined to discuss their baby.
“There isn’t much to say. So many women are expecting children, it’s so uninteresting to French people in these difficult times they are going through,” she said. “It’s great news for me but it’s also something very banal.
“It’s the first time a president of the French Republic gets divorced and married in his term of office, and the whole situation is different. I guess my husband is a different type of president.’
She said she didn’t talk about the baby because she was “very superstitious.”
“It is not so easy to be pregnant past 35 years old and everyone knows that.”
In an interview that sounded relaxed and friendly, Bruni-Sarkozy said it was very “rock and roll” marrying the president.
“It’s not my type of life,” she said.
“It’s an adventure and also from his point of view it’s very rock and roll,’ she added. ‘After all, I’m a songwriter.”
Bruni granted the interview to Christine Ockrent, a personal friend of the first lady and partner of former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
Ockrent said the first lady had not wanted to embarrass her husband in the interview, recorded just seven months before he seeks reelection in May.
Asked if she would vote, given her previous “leanings to the left,” she said “of course.”
“If he’s going to campaign, I will probably vote for him.... It’s common sense.”
She said they lead a “very quiet life.... We keep evenings for ourselves as much as we can.”
And her dream life? “Going back to tour, make my music. Touring, playing guitar in different countries and singing is what I miss the most.”
Her husband, she said, would probably “work until he dies.”
“He’s that kind of man, he’s not the lazy type, he’s not the depressing type ... and he is so interested in so many different things. I think he could do whatever [he wants].”
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-- Kim Willsher