France's Hollande attacks report of affair with actress
French President Francois Hollande
says he is considering suing a magazine after it claimed he was having an affair
with an actress.
Mr Hollande described the report as an "attack on the right to privacy".
The latest edition of the weekly tabloid Closer features seven pages of revelations and photos about his alleged affair with Julie Gayet.
Ms Gayet, 41, is an established television and cinema actress who has appeared in more than 50 films.
She once appeared in one of Mr Hollande's election campaign television adverts.
Rumours of their alleged relationship have been circulating on the internet for many months.
The political class will rally around President Hollande of course, saying
this is a grotesque invasion of his private life and has nothing to do with his
role as president.
But many ordinary people are bound to take a different view. This is an insight into the life of their president and if, as the magazine is claiming, he is unhappy in his life, quite morose, living separately from his official partner and sneaking out on these rendezvous on a regular basis, then many people will say they do deserve to know that.
This is a moment in his presidency when he's got to re-launch himself. He needs to refashion an image of himself as a more decisive decision-maker who's prepared to take risks.
This period, January, is traditionally the time when presidents do that. President Hollande has a round of press conferences next week that were to be the moment, his entourage was saying, when he would re-forge a more dynamic image.
Of course that's all been blown out of the water now.
But many ordinary people are bound to take a different view. This is an insight into the life of their president and if, as the magazine is claiming, he is unhappy in his life, quite morose, living separately from his official partner and sneaking out on these rendezvous on a regular basis, then many people will say they do deserve to know that.
This is a moment in his presidency when he's got to re-launch himself. He needs to refashion an image of himself as a more decisive decision-maker who's prepared to take risks.
This period, January, is traditionally the time when presidents do that. President Hollande has a round of press conferences next week that were to be the moment, his entourage was saying, when he would re-forge a more dynamic image.
Of course that's all been blown out of the water now.
Last March, she filed a complaint with prosecutors in
Paris against various bloggers and websites that were reporting on the
rumours.
Her lawyer at the time said there was no basis to the claims. She has not yet commented on the latest developments.
Mr Hollande's official partner is Valerie Trierweiler, a journalist for whom he left fellow Socialist politician Segolene Royal, the mother of his four children.
Mr Hollande told the Agence France Presse news agency that he "like every other citizen has a right" to privacy.
In a statement issued personally rather than by his office, he said he was "looking into possible action, including legal action" against Closer.
But he does not deny the allegation of an affair, the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris points out.
The magazine's print edition came out on Friday and shows pictures it claims support rumours that the 59-year-old president routinely spends the night with Ms Gayet at a flat not far from the Elysee Palace.
The pictures purportedly show the pair arriving separately. Mr Hollande, wearing a helmet, is on a motorbike driven by a chauffeur.
The president's official partner is the journalist
Valerie Trierweiler who lives with him at the Elysee palace The magazine claims the president's bodyguard arrives the following morning to deliver croissants.
'Ship has sailed'
Closer magazine has run up against France's strict privacy laws - which make it a criminal offence to publish information about a person's private life without their express permission - in the past.
The British royal family took legal action against the magazine in September 2012 after it published photos of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless on a private holiday in France.
FRENCH PRIVACY LAWS
- Among strictest in world - constitution says "everyone has the right to privacy"
- Publication of private details of someone's life without their consent is punishable offence
- French media often more cautious than in US or UK about private lives of politicians or celebrities
- Privacy laws helped late President Francois Mitterrand conceal existence of daughter Mazarine, whose mother was his mistress
- Main defences - right to freedom of expression and public interest (ie, how an official's behaviour may affect his/her work)
- Privacy debate was reignited by sex allegations about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former IMF chief and a top Socialist politician
French political commentator Anne Elisabeth Moutet told
the BBC the magazine was unlikely to have gone with the story about Mr
Hollande's alleged affair "without being quite sure that they had something on
it".
"And what's very interesting is that this was immediately picked up by one of the very respectable news magazines, Le Point," she said.
It was unlikely legal action could now suppress the story, Moutet added.
"That ship has sailed. I think it's now like in England and in America. I think the more he decides he doesn't want this to be reported, the more he will keep it in the news."
President Hollande, who took office in May 2012, has seen public support slipping recently. One poll in November gave him just 15% support, the lowest for any president in the last 50 years.
French people have historically been tolerant of their leaders' infidelities - with revelations making little impact on poll ratings.
Former President Jacques Chirac was a known ladies man, once confessing: "There have been women I have loved a lot, as discreetly as possible".
His predecessor Francois Mitterand kept secret a mistress and daughter for much of his presidency, only acknowledging them shortly before his death in 1996.
