French Prez & Model: Already Married?

Local papers claim Nicolas Sarkzy and Carla Bruni wed in a secret ceremony last week

Photo: CHAMUSSY/SIPA

Rumors of a secret wedding ceremony between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and ex-supermodel girlfriend Carla Bruni swept across France late Monday.

A late-breaking website story Monday afternoon from L’Est Republicain newspaper declared that the couple had wed in a private ceremony last Thursday. Citing “a source close to a witness who attended the ceremony,” the paper declared it was a “small, intimate affair held at the Elysee.”

But Bruni’s mother – who’s very close to her daughter and even chaperoned her early dates with the President – swears she doesn’t know anything about a wedding.

“I’ve just come from seeing Carla and she didn’t say a thing,” her mom, Marisa Borini, told Reuters within hours of the story’s release. Still, she admitted, “It’s possible, everything is possible.”

The story comes less than one week after Sarkozy publicly discussed the two-month-old relationship in a press conference, telling journalists, “there’s a strong chance you won’t find out about [a marriage] until it’s happened.”

On Tuesday, Paris’s newspapers lined up to question the secret ceremony report. “I had him on the telephone on Sunday,” one well-known Sarkozy collaborator declared. “He didn’t speak to me of a marriage at all.” Television network TF1/LCI – which has very close ties to the President – reported that, to its knowledge, no request was made to dispense with legal formalities requiring a 30-day waiting period for weddings in France.

Late Monday evening, Sarkozy himself – not wearing a wedding band – spoke to the press informally during his trip to Qatar, the second stop of a three-country Gulf visit. “Don’t count on me to confirm or deny,” he told reporters accompanying him. “My response is: No comment.”

He reiterated, “When I have something to say, I’ll tell you. Stop being interested in my private life.”