Who is Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife Carla Bruni?
NICOLAS Sarkozy's third wife, Carla Bruni, has been left fuming after France's ex-President was found guilty of corruption.
The ex-model had slammed the charges as "a scandal" and "disgusting lies" - so who is the former first lady?
Who is Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni?
Carla Bruni, 53, was born Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi on December 23, 1967, in Turin, Italy.
Her family moved to France when she was aged seven to escape a wave of kidnappings and killings of right-wing politicians and businessmen by the left-wing Red Brigades.
At the age of 19, Bruni signed with City Models and eventually modelled for Guess jeans, and worked with designers, Christian Dior, Givenchy and Karl Lagerfield.
Bruni's porcelain skin, slender frame and feline gaze helped make her one of the world’s most successful models in the 1990s.
By this time, she was among the 20 highest paid fashion models in the world, earning $7.5million at her peak.
She has been linked to a string of famous men, including British musicians Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, and even the former US President, Donald Trump.
In 1997, Bruni quit modelling to develop her music career. She is most famous for her debut album, Quelqu'un m'a dit.
She has completed numerous albums.
In 2009 Bruni strummed guitar alongside former Eurythmics musician Dave Stewart.
They performed a duet at a concert in New York to commemorate Nelson Mandela’s 91st birthday - the first time she had sung in public since marrying Nicolas Sarkozy.
Bruni met newly-divorced Sarkozy in November 2007 at a dinner party, before marrying him four months later.
But she has not always been a fan of marriage.
She told the Figaro Madame magazine in 2007: “I’m monogamous from time to time, but I prefer polygamy and polyandry.”
She added: “Love lasts a long time, but burning desire - two or three weeks.”
The couple share a daughter Giulia, while Bruni has a son, Aurélien Enthoven, from a previous relationship with philosopher Raphael Enthoven.
Bruni told Good Morning Britain in 2020 that her secret to a happy marriage was good luck.
She said: "I guess it’s luck - we were lucky because we had a daughter together; we had four children before we got married.
"We had a daughter quite late, at the age of being grandparents, and so I think it’s just luck we got married later."
Who are Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wives?
Nicolas Sarkozy, 66, was the 23rd President of France, and the sixth person to be elected President of the Fifth Republic.
Sarkozy - who was president from 2007 to 2012 - is now on his third marriage.
Marie-Dominique Culioli
Sarkozy married his first wife, Marie-Dominique Culioli in 1982, with whom he had two sons, Pierre and Jean.
But they divorced 14 years later amid claims they had been separated for several years.
He had been married for barely a year to Culioli, a pharmacist's daughter, when he became mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, in 1983.
She got custody of their children, "but tried to manage their separation with dignity and intelligence", reported Gala in France.
Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz
Sarkozy went on to marry former fashion model and PR executive Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz in 1996.
Her father came from Romania while her mother was Spanish. Cecilia once boasted she did not have “a single drop of French blood”.
The pair had a son, Louis, but they later divorced in 2007 after he was elected President.
Just one year later Ciganer-Albeniz, then aged 50, married PR executive Richard Attias - less than two months after Sarkozy wed Bruni in Paris.
It was Ciganer-Albeniz's third marriage.
“Three marriages and a year of erring,” was the headline in France’s Liberation newspaper.
Who are Nicolas Sarkozy's children?
Nicolas Sarkozy has four children.
He had two sons, Pierre and Jean, with first wife Marie-Dominique Culioli; a third son, Louis, with second wife, Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz; and his youngest child is daughter Giulia, who was born to third wife Carla Bruni.
Pierre Sarkozy
Pierre Sarkozy is also known as DJ Mosey, and - aside from gigs - works as a music producer.
His agent, Sharron Elkabas, writes that "Mosey’s 2017 mixtape, L’an Sauvagement, saw support from Ibiza Sonica, Heure Bleue, Nioz, and more, racking up over 100,000 plays on SoundCloud".
His bio states he has "toured the world, taking to the booth in the likes of Queen in Paris, Green Valley in Brazil, Volksgarten in Vienna, Buddha Bar in NYC, and Space Ibiza, while playing private parties for the likes of fashion brand Lacoste".
It states: "In addition to his gifts as a producer, Mosey is a talented musician and instrumentalist, known for performing his own vocals."
In 2012 he told a reporter: "When my father was president I didn't want that to be the big issue.
"I wanted to prove my value outside of France first."
Jean Sarkozy
At the age of 23, the former president's second son, Jean Sarkozy, controversially became the head of Epad, the body in charge of the powerful Paris business district La Défense.
At the time, Jean was also a student and a town councillor for his wealthy Paris suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine, where his father was once mayor, reported Connexion France.
French website Gala reported in 2020 that the then-34 year old has since "turned his back on politics to return to his first love by becoming a temporary lecturer in corporate law at the University of Paris XII".
Aside from giving lectures on commercial law and contract law, Jean also works as a lawyer at a firm, "of which his father is one of the four partners".
Jean is married to Jessica Sebaoun, an heiress with whom he has two children, Gala added.
Louis Sarkozy
Sarkozy and Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz had a son, Louis.
In 2012, The Sun reported how Sarkozy had to apologise after his then 15-year-old son threw a tomato at a cop guarding the Elysee Palace.
Louis and two pals launched an attack from the courtyard of the Paris residence, throwing missiles over a gate.
The woman was also hit in the cheek by a marble and paper.
A source said the incident was smoothed over as Sarkozy was up for re-election: “It may well have been hushed up to save Mr Sarkozy embarrassment. These were not childish pranks - Louis is 15.”
Also known as 'Sarko Junior' on social media, Louis left Paris for the US in his teens, where he studied at the strict Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania, according to the Gentleman's Journal.
The publication points out that he is fall taller than his dad - "6ft to papa Nicholas’s 5ft 5in".
Following a path into fashion, he brought out a line of loafers with his business partner, and praised Mark Zuckerberg as "one of the most stylish men in the world".
The New York Times reported in 2019 that the then-22 year old "is close to his extended family and they are supportive of his venture into footwear".
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Giulia Sarkozy
Giulia Sarkozy is the youngest of the blended family, and turns ten in October 2021.
Read More on The US Sun
She appeared in her mum's - Carla Bruni - music video for Un Grand Amour', where she dances.
Elle reported that Giulia is "already a mini-star" and a "miniature carbon copy of her famous mother".