The sad plight of our Lady of Alvinos

Carla Bruni hoping to become model mother to Nicolas Sarkozy's child
French glossy magazine speculates that first lady wants to become pregnant before her husband faces elections in 2012

Kim Willsher in Paris
guardian.co.uk
Monday 3 January 2011

Love or loathe Carla Bruni – and the French cannot quite make up their minds – she can always be guaranteed to keep the Gallic rumour mill grinding.

Now the model turned singer, who is France's first lady, is reported to be desperate to "offer" her husband president Nicolas Sarkozy a baby some time in the next two years – perhaps just before he stands for re-election in 2012.

So says glossy celebrity magazine Gala, which dedicated the front and four inside pages of its new year issue to the subject under the headline: Carla – her battle to become a mother.

Since marrying Sarkozy in 2008, Bruni has regularly been the focus of pregnancy rumours. She only has to disappear from public view for a few days for magazines and blogs to declare she is expecting. After one such frenzy provoked by a photograph of Bruni with a slightly bloated stomach she joked: "I must stop drinking beer."

Libération newspaper recently ran a short story about a fictional president who gets his wife pregnant in the hope of improving his election chances.

The latest reports – quickly picked up by Gala's rivals – came a month after Bruni allegedly told a Muslim cleric that she was "praying for a son", during a state visit to India.

While the Elysée palace has not commented on the latest rumours, Bruni, 43, has made no secret of her desire to have another child. She has a nine-year-old son from a previous relationship, while Sarkozy has three sons from two previous marriages and is a grandfather.

Gala has clearly decided now is the time. With presidential elections scheduled for the spring of 2012, and Sarkozy almost certain to stand for a second term in office, the magazine says even the "most daring of Washington's spin doctors" could not come up with anything as good.

A presidential baby might be just the thing to improve the couple's popularity: a Harris poll last week declared Bruni the country's most irritating celebrity with 52% of those asked saying they found her presence "highly grating". A second poll by IFOP published today found almost half of French people declared Sarkozy and Bruni their "favourite couple".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jan/03/carla-bruni-nicloas-sarkozy-pregnancy?INTCMP=SRCH