Ex in the City
While Nicolas Sarkozy deals with the latest scandals in Paris, his former wife Cecilia Attias has started a new life in New York.
After divorcing French President Nicolas Sarkozy, moving to New York City, and remarrying high-profile executive Richard Attias, Cécilia Sarkozy simultaneously launched herself into the worldwide charity initiative for women’s equality and the New York social scene.
Recently, on June 24th, Cécilia appeared as the keynote speaker for her foundation’s Dialogue for Action – an event organized to address “the current global issues [facing] women today.”
In light of the mounting celebrity of the now Ms. Attias’ foundation and social status, many have questioned whether the ex-first lady of France even remotely misses her homeland. When questioned about her patriotism and abrupt, post-divorce departure to the United States, Cécilia says, “I didn't flee from France… I love my country, I love French people; it was a decision to live in New York."
The decision to leave France for the United States did not come as a surprise to many French citizens. Cécilia has been publically linked to Attias since 2005, and – apart from being known as a staunch New York lover – Cécilia has been consistently described as a “fierce independent.” In 2007, after her then-husband, Sarkozy, won the Presidential election, Cécilia insisted "I don’t see myself as a first lady. It bores me. I prefer going round in combat trousers and cowboy boots. I don’t fit the mould…”
Quickly following the assumption of her dreaded role as First Lady of France, Sarko and Cécilia split, after which point she moved to New York and married long-term boyfriend, Richard Attias.
Though the proud New Yorker and founder of a leading New York charity maintains that she loves France, she has previously insisted that her Jewish and Spanish ancestry has left her without “a drop of French blood in [her] veins.”
Ms. Attias claims that while being married to the French President provided the First Lady many opportunities to further her cause in helping distressed women around the world, the opportunities offered in America as a pseudo-New York celebrity far exceed those she would have enjoyed as Sarko's wife, claiming, “Everything is possible in the United States. I mean, you can do it [all]!”
Both Sarkozy’s ex-wife and son, Louis, reside permanently in New York, neither of whom show remote signs of moving back to the motherland anytime soon, clearly much preferring the abundance of liberté, égalité, fraternité provided in the United States.