French President Nicolas Sarkozy married supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni at the Elysee Palace on Saturday, French radio reported quoting several witnesses. Two radio stations said the pair tied the knot at a low-key ceremony conducted by the mayor of the Paris district that houses the grandiose Elysee estate.
"The bride was wearing white and was ravishing," mayor Francois Lebel told Europe 1 radio. "The bridegroom wasn't bad either," he added, without naming the couple. The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Bruni's mother, Marisa Borini, as confirming the wedding had taken place. A spokesman for Sarkozy declined to comment on the reports.
Sarkozy and Bruni indicated last month that they planned to marry and made it clear that any wedding would be a private affair, far from the eyes of the media. A French newspaper report on January 14 that they had married proved unfounded. RTL radio on Saturday gave a much more detailed report, naming the couple's witnesses.
The radio station also quoted Bernadette Chirac, wife of previous French President Jacques Chirac, as saying getting married at the Elysee, the president's official residence, was "a wonderful thing". "I want to express all my best wishes to this new household. She is very, very beautiful," she added. It was not immediately clear if she was present.
Sarkozy, 53, separated from his second wife Cecilia last October after 11 years of marriage and was clearly deeply upset by the split, just five months after he took power.
It was the first time in modern French history that a serving president had separated from his wife, but within two months Sarkozy was photographed in public at Paris Disneyland with Bruni, and the French media reported they were a couple. The two went on holiday together over the Christmas period in Egypt and Jordan and photographs of them walking arm-in-arm made the front cover of almost every news magazine in France.