The magazine, Nouvel Observateur, had claimed that Sarkozy made the offer in a text message to Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz a week before he married singer-model Carla Bruni in February, the BBC reported Wednesday.

The British network reported that the president withdrew the lawsuit following an apology from Airy Routier, who wrote the story.

In the French newspaper Le Monde, Bruni-Sarkozy wrote an op-ed basting the media.

"If, from now on, rumor is used as the basis for news, if fantasies become scoops, where are we headed?" she wrote. "If major newspapers fail to sift out rumor from facts, who will do it?"

The magazine stands by its story, BBC reported.