France’s ex-first lady ‘fell off skyscraper’ on hearing of affair

Trierweiler told the weekly Paris-Match, where she long worked as a journalist, that she didn’t believe rumours about the affair until a gossip magazine report earlier this month. “When I found out, it was like I had fallen from a skyscraper,” she is quoted as saying.

She told the Le Parisien she and the president exchanged text messages while she was in India this week because he was worried about her health.

Trierweiler also revealed she may write a book about her split with the president, saying she was “more disappointed than angry”.

In the Le Parisien, Trierweiler described her visit to India this week as a “return to freedom, far from the political world and its betrayals”.

President Hollande has faced criticism over the curt manner in which he announced at the weekend he had split from Trierweiler after his affair with an actress, in a brief statement to AFP.

She also observed dryly that her former partner’s statement announcing the split amounted to “eighteen words, nearly one for each month together since his election”.

She said she had replied to text messages from Hollande while in India. “He was worried about the organisation of the trip and about my health,” Trierweiler said.

Trierweiler gave the interview during a two-day visit to India on behalf of a French charity that saw her visit a slum and witness a programme for malnourished children.

In it, she said she was “keen to return to a normal life as quickly as possible because I do not want to be part of the celebrity set, and I will not be part of it.”