French prez to pick first lady before US visit

Embattled French President François Hollande vowed Tuesday to pick between his partner and his mistress in time for next month’s state dinner with President Obama.

Hollande told reporters in Paris he would clarify who the first lady of France is in time for the Feb. 11 state visit. His live-in partner, former political reporter Valérie Trierweiler, was hospitalized for reported shock and exhaustion over the weekend following a magazine report that Hollande had been seeing film actress Julie Gayet.

{mosads}Asked during a press conference if Trierweiler remained the first lady of France, Hollande told reporters that “private affairs should remain private,” and it was “neither the time nor the place” to make an announcement. But he said he would do so before the state visit.

“Everyone, in their personal lives, can face struggles,” Hollande said. “That’s our case. These are painful times.”

Hollande is hardly the first French leader to have an affair, and the French public has historically respected its leaders’ requests that their private lives remain private. Hollande’s sex scandal, however, comes as the French leader is already reeling from record low poll numbers and follows his well-publicized 2007 separation from fellow Socialist Party heavyweight Ségolène Royal, with whom he has four children. 

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