A Man and a Woman

Always and at almost any opportunity Sarkozy has spoken and written of Cécilia in passionate, sometimes sappy, language. A chapter devoted to their marriage and its difficulties in Sarkozy's 2006 autobiographical essay "Témoignage" (Testimony) uses only her first initial as a title: "'C.' I write 'C' because still today, almost 20 years after we first met, saying her first name out loud fills me with emotion. C, that's Cécilia. Cécilia is my wife. She's part of me … We cannot--we know not how to--pull apart from each other. It's not for want of trying … But it's impossible!" The couple has a 10-year-old son, Louis, and two children each from previous marriages.

Sarkozy suggested that in today's France, a politician's intimate problems have to be revealed as never before. "This evolution toward transparency about private life, unimaginable only ten years ago, has become inescapable today," wrote Sarkozy. Then he adopted the posture of hard-nosed realism he applies to just about any challenge. "So it's just as well to confront the problem head on and not try to dodge the issue."

 Will the current break-up plunge the French president into a melancholy plagued by migraines, as reportedly happened after Cécilia's Dead Sea escapade in 2005. Or has the burden of his "only worry" been lifted at last?

"We've been waiting for this since Monday. We had a bet going in our family that the divorce would be announced today, the day of the strikes," says Régine Torrent, author of "First Ladies: From Eleanor Roosevelt to Hillary Clinton." "I don't think the choice of the date was all that innocent."

"People who've taken a day off to avoid the strikes, or even people who've made it to the office, if it's a bit quiet, they are all following the soap opera of the day," says Torrent. As for Sarkozy himself, "Professionally, it might be better for him," she suggests. "He won't have to be justifying a situation that didn't have a justification." Indeed, the opposition Socialist Party noted in a communiqué this afternoon, "While the rumors of the separation of Cécilia and Nicolas Sarkozy have been rustling for six days, the Elysée chooses this Thursday, a day of strong protests, to make this news official." It added mischievously, "It's up to the French people to judge whether this is but a simple coincidence."

What's sure is that the unions who put their all into today's work stoppage are unhappy about the distraction. Already, polls had shown that for the first time in modern French history such a strike was opposed by the majority of the population. The UNSA union has announced that some Paris subway workers will extend its action another day, if only to make sure the press pays attention.  But, of course, now that the Sarkozys' split is official, the public will be looking forward to more episodes of "Desperate Housewife."