French President Sarkozy, wife to split

PARIS, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Cecelia, announced their separation Thursday, 11 years after their marriage and five months after his election.

Legal experts in France are unsure how Sarkozy's immunity from legal proceedings would affect the divorce, The Times of London reported.

The marriage had been troubled for some time, with Cecelia Sarkozy living with another man for several months last year. The couple presented a united front during the campaign but recently Mrs. Sarkozy had dropped out of sight, even missing a picnic with U.S. President Bush while she and her husband were on vacation in the United States at a lake resort in New Hampshire.

The Sarkozys lived together while they were ending their first marriages. They have one child.

"It is a private matter on which I can’t express myself," Xavier Darcos, the education minister, said. "I simply always find it painful to see that love can come apart but I don’t know anything."