The course of action:

Carla Bruni, the wife of French president Sarkozy, has a long history of romances with famous and powerful men. The 39 year old French-Italian ex-model and singer, has had relationships with, amongst others, billionaire Donald Trump, guitar player Eric Clapton, actor Kevin Costner and singer Mick Jagger. Bruni started her modeling career at 19 and within 1 year was already one of the top catwalk models, earning around 7.5 million dollars a year.

During her years as a top model she became widely known for her affairs with celebrities such as Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Donald Trump, Kevin Costner and the Swiss-Spanish actor Vincent Pérez.

In 1998 Carla Bruni quit modeling and focused on writing and singing chansons.

The result:

Her relationship with Mick Jagger did not last but did lead to a crisis between Jagger and his then wife, Jerry Hall.

The romance between Bruni and Donald Trump also led to ‘fire works’. At the time the successful American businessman and billionaire was married to actress Marla Maples. Although the relationship between Bruni and Trump did not stand the test of time, it did lead to the break up between Trump and Maples.

Bruni’s affairs with Clapton and the actors Costner and Pérez were also relatively short-lived, and rumor has it that her relationship with Pérez also led to a break-up: actress Jacqueline Bisset, who was with Pérez at the time, reacted furiously and broke off their relationship when Bruni appeared in his life…

But there were not only famous or powerful men in Bruni’s life. In 2001 Bruni and the young philosopher Raphaël Enthoven had a son together. Bruni had met Raphaël during a vacation with Jean-Paul Enthoven, her lover at that time and the father of Raphaël! This time there was no family crisis – but Raphaël did leave his wife, writer Justine Lévy (the daughter of Bernard-Henri Lévy) to marry Bruni…

The lesson:

For many trying, and failing, at intimate relationships is part and parcel of life. Over the years Bruni gained a lot of experience with actors, pop stars, businessmen and philosophers before embarking on her adventure at the highest political level…

As we now all know, Sarkozy proposed to Bruni, they got married, and Bruni now leads the life of the wife of the 50-year old French president. A life filled with state visits and dinners with the world’s most powerful people. Brilliant! The question remains of how long this relationship will last…

Further:
Sarkozy and his previous wife Cecelia, also a former top model, divorced in October 2007. The French public followed the media circus around his new relationship closely, and many had concerns about the consequences of this affair on the French image abroad…

Carla Bruni is not someone who is easy to categorize. Neither does she appear to be too bothered by public opinion and criticism. This is supported by one of her recent statements: ‘it really does not interest me what … others write about me. And censorship is for weaklings’.

Published by:
IvBM editors
Sources include: articles in De Pers, NRCNext, Wikipedia, Elsevier, L’express.

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