Nicolas Sarkozy was worried by the timing of a visit from the Pope because it clashed with Carla Bruni singing live on television.The bizarre incident is one of a series leaked by one of the French First Lady’s closest friends which portray the 57-year-old President as being hen pecked.
Christophe Barbier, a Paris journalist, in turn makes it clear that Carla, 44, is a self-obsessed diva with a ferocious temper.
In September 2008, the Pope was due to visit the Elysee Palace around the time that Carla was singing a duet on Taratata, a TV music show.
‘What time is the Pope arriving?’ Sarkozy asked his aides, adding ‘My wife has to do her balance checks for Taratata. I want to see it’.
Mr Barbier’s anecdotes, which are all in a new book, contain direct quotes from Carla, making it clear that she has cooperated.
He recounts a controversial holiday to Mexico in March 2009 when the presidential couple stayed in a 2,100 pounds-a-night beach-front villa in Mexico.
Carla, who is often likened to the spoilt French queen Marie Antoinette, said: ‘I cleaned my teeth with tap-water and that made me ill for the whole stay.’
Irritated by negative publicity, a furious Carla accused Mr Barbier of writing stories which were ‘masturbatory’ and ‘ignoble’.
When Le Parisien, the French capital’s daily paper, suggested Carla had ‘loose’ morals, she phoned to complain.
Turin-born Carla screamed at an editor: ‘If you don’t apologise in tomorrow’s edition, I’m going to the paper, as Carla Bruni, Italian, and not as First Lady, and I’m going to poke your eyes out.’
Carla told Mr Barbier that politics was ‘a lot more violent’ than showbusiness, adding ‘it’s violent all the time, it’s violent by essence.’
She continued: ‘Changing from the life of an artist to politics is not a change of degree it’s a change of nature. In politics, there are certain brutal things. It’s something for boys, deep down, there are very few men who don’t like politics.’
Extracts from ‘Maquillages’ (‘Make-ups’), Mr Barbier’s new book, are in the latest edition of Marianne, the Paris political weekly magazine.
Carla is currently campaigning on behalf of Mr Sarkozy as he attempts to be re-elected as President in May, but he is trailing in all polls to his Socialist rival Francois Hollande.