Trierweiler ‘fell off skyscraper’ on hearing of affair

The former first lady of France, Valerie Trierweiler, said she felt as if she had plunged from a skyscraper when President François Hollande told her of his affair with an actor.

Ms Trierweiler, from whom Mr Hollande announced his separation last Saturday, told the glossy magazine Paris Match that she had been aware of rumours about an affair, but that having them confirmed by her partner of seven years was a shock.

“I had heard rumours, obviously, but you hear them about everyone,” said Ms Trierweiler, saying she paid them little heed. “When I found out, it’s like I fell off a skyscraper.”

Ms Trierweiler gave the interview to Paris Match, for which she works as a columnist, during a humanitarian visit this week to Mumbai with the charity Action Against Hunger.

The India trip was her first public appearance after spending eight days in hospital and a week in seclusion following publication by the tabloid Closer of photos which it said showed Mr Hollande (59), making nocturnal visits to the apartment of 41-year-old French actor Julie Gayet.

The night before the photos were published, Mr Hollande came to break the news to Ms Trierweiler and they spent a long night “talking, without eating or sleeping”, she said. Fatigue and shock took their toll the next morning and Ms Trierweiler fainted, prompting her hospital visit, she said.

No regrets
Ms Trierweiler said she did not regret her relationship or her 19 months as first lady. "It may seem strange, but I'm not going through a crisis period," she said. "It's not the first break-up in my life. It's been rough because it was turned into a media event.

“I don’t regret a thing. What I went through was an extraordinary period of my life that brought me to somewhere else. I’m going to go back to my life from before, but it will be enriched by a new experience.” – (Reuters)