After four sons between them, Carla Bruni and her husband, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, finally have a baby girl. The first lady gave birth shortly before 8pm local time on Wednesday night, the country's media reported. The couple have decided not to officially announce the birth, though the French leader did react warmly when he was congratulated on a scheduled visit.
When workers at an industrial site presented him with gifts – including a bib, a diet book for Carla and a small oak tree to plant – Mr Sarkozy thanked them, saying he felt a "very profound joy, a joy all the deeper because it is private". He added that both mother and baby were "doing very well" and that their daughter's name would be revealed by his wife.
This is the first time an infant has been born to a sitting president of modern-day France. Mr Sarkozy does, however, have three sons from his two previous marriages – and has been a grandfather since January.
Carla has a ten-year-old son from a previous relationship. Unfortunately, the 56-year-old president was absent for the new baby's grand debut because he was finishing up a meeting in Frankfurt on the euro debt crisis.
He reportedly arrived at the small, private Muette Clinic about 11pm – his third trip of the day to support his 43-year-old wife. Radio station Europe 1 said the birth "went well" for the supermodel-turned-singer who'd arrived at the hospital in western Paris in the morning, accompanied by her husband. The Elysee Palace had reiterated earlier that no birth announcement would be forthcoming. But junior minister Nadine Morano, a friend of the first couple told BFM TV: "It's obviously a happy event."
The minister accompanied Mr Sarkozy on a flight to Nice on Tuesday and said he was "very attentive, full of attention" when he spoke with his wife by phone during their trip. The couple married in February 2009, less than a year after the politician took office, and less than four months after his divorce from second wife Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz. More on Carla's wonderful news