French first lady Valerie Trierweiler left hospital in Paris today, a week after reports emerged that her partner, president Francois Hollande, was having an affair with the actress Julie Gayet, Paris Match magazine said on its website.
Ms Trierweiler left the Pitie Salpetriere hospital just after 2pm and went to the president’s official residence at La Lanterne in Versailles to rest, said the magazine, for which Ms Trierweiler works.
Mr Hollande’s office declined to comment. Sources close to Ms Trierweiler were not immediately reachable to confirm the report.
Paris Match said that Ms Trierweiler was expected to spend a few days at La Lanterne, near the Chateau de Versailles, citing sources close to Mr Hollande.
Ms Trierweiler was admitted to hospital on January 10th after gossip magazine Closer published what it said were images of Hollande making a nocturnal visit to Gayet’s pied-a-terre apartment in the upmarket eighth arrondissement of Paris.
Mr Hollande, who visited Ms Trierweiler in hospital on Thursday, according to a source in his office, was in his old parliamentary constituency of Tulle, in central France, today. His speech there made no reference to the matter.
The reports of the affair with Ms Gayet, which Mr Hollande has neither confirmed nor denied, have raised questions about whether Ms Trierweiler will continue to occupy the unofficial position of France’s “first lady” and accompany the president on state visits.
Mr Hollande pledged at a news conference on Tuesday to clarify Ms Trierweiler’s status ahead of a trip to the United States scheduled for February 9th. He brushed off questions about the alleged affair.
He said everyone in their personal life could “face trials” and that “that is our case”, adding that “these are painful moments”.
The president has insisted on his right to a private life and has pursued business largely as usual, unveiling his economic reform plans for the rest of his five-year presidency at the Tuesday event and giving a keynote speech to French diplomats on Friday.
While the reports surrounding Mr Hollande, Ms Trierweiler and Ms Gayet have hit the headlines internationally, the French are traditionally indulgent of their leaders’ sexual indiscretions.
A poll carried out by BVA for French TV channel iTele published today showed three-quarters of those interviewed thought Hollande was right not to answer questions about his private life, with 62 per cent considering it was a private matter that only concerned him.
Before the publication in Closer, Mr Hollande had become the least popular French president in modern times, largely due to tax increases, recession and high unemployment, compounded by a reputation for dithering.
Reuters