Sarkozy to marry girlfriend Carla Bruni: Report

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his model-turned- singer girlfriend Carla Bruni pose near the Great Pyramids of Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo. — AFP photo

Paris, January 6
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will be visiting India later this month, is to marry his new girlfriend, the former model-turned-singer Carla Bruni, a French newspaper reported today, claiming a wedding was “imminent”.

Citing several anonymous sources, the Journal du Dimanche said the couple, currently on a private visit to Jordan at the invitation of King Abdullah II, are believed to have set a wedding date for either February 8 or 9.

Presidential spokesman David Martinon declined to comment on the front-page story.

Sarkozy, 52, and Bruni, 39, were photographed yesterday touring the rose-red city of Petra in southern Jordan, the President carrying Bruni’s young son Aurelien on his shoulders.

During a Christmas trip to Egypt, the recently divorced president reportedly gave Bruni an engagement ring — a pink diamond heart — while Bruni gave him a luxury Swiss watch in grey steel.

Sarkozy and Bruni — heiress to a tyre fortune whose former boyfriends include rock stars Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton — have been trailed by a swarm of paparazzi since their romance was first publicised in mid-December.

Bruni may accompany Sarkozy on an official trip to India late this month, according to media.

The French president and his second wife Cecilia announced their divorce in October after 11 years of a tumultuous marriage. Sarkozy has a 10-year-old son with Cecilia, as well as two grown sons from a previous marriage. — AFP