Who IS Carla Bruni? Model, Singer, First Lady, Mom

Amidst the rumors and fuss, the marriage between Carla and President Sarkozy seems solid. Often seen holding his hand or consoling him with a gentle touch on his brow, she told British Vogue, "When I met [Nicolas Sarkozy], walking around the garden in the Palais of the Élysée, he keeps giving me all these flowers' names. He knows all the Latin names, all these details about tulips and roses. I said to myself: 'My God, I must marry this man, he's the president and he knows everything about flowers as well. This is incredible."


It has been reported that French officials have said that her husband wanted her to become known as a "Gallic Lady Di".

Furious that a nude photo of her went on sale on the eve of her State visit to Britain with her husband a more demure photo of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is seen during the Patrick Demarchelier's exhibition Party in Paris, France, 2008.

In 2009, Carla Bruni broke her musical silence by doing a performance with Dave Stewart (of the Eurythmics) in honor of Nelson Mandela's 91st birthday. Dressed in a plain black trouser suit and standing solemnly, she was faced with the tricky balancing act of being both a president's wife and pop star.

Carla Bruni had a rough go at filming a part in "Midnight in Paris," a Woody Allen movie with Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard. She was said to perform poorly and Woody replaced her many scenes with a famous French actress half her age, Lea Seydoux. While Woody claimed Carla's acting was "smooth" he pressed on with Lea and cut Carla's screen time dramatically.

Real French film stars including Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve have all been fiercely critical of Miss Bruni recently, suggesting that they would rather see her concentrating on her work as first lady.

The Sarkozys burned up the paparazzi lenses with some sexy swimming off the coast of France. The French first couple took a three-week holiday at the Brunis' villa in Cap Negre where they took a daily dip. Carla looking stunning in her bikini.

While an auction of a nude photo of Carla taken when she was dating Mick Jagger in 1993, sold in New York for $91,000, Carla made her first official visit to England with President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The auction is said to have been met with disapproval by Carla. Meeting with Prince Charles and the Queen, they marked the 70th anniversary of General Charles de Gaulle's radio broadcast urging his nation to resist the Nazi occupation of France. 

Suddenly trading her rock-and-roll boots for Dior high heels, Carla Bruni meets with the Queen of Spain, princes, princesses and foreign dignitaries from all over the world. This didn't change her rock-and-roll worldview, however.

As told to the BBC, she was quoted, "Marrying him is very rock-and-roll for someone like me. Being able to change your life from one day to another, that's really rock-and-roll. Most people wouldn't go for this sort of change. Also from his side, it's very rock-and-roll, you know - after all, I'm a songwriter!"

Carla visits Children Hospital for Aids in December 2010 in New Delhi, India while, only a few weeks earlier, (according to CNN) a hard-line Iranian newspaper had called the French first lady a "prostitute" and recommended she be put to death for supporting a woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran for adultery.

Carla Bruni meets with the Dalai Lama in August 2008 at a Buddhist temple on a hill in Languedoc, France. Carla was passed the “kata”, the traditional white scarf worn as a sign of welcome in Tibet.

The meeting aroused anger of both Left and Right. The left-leaning Libération reports the words of Faouzi Lamdaoui, Socialist Party spokesman: "I denounce the laughable communications operation surrounding Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (...) The staging of this meeting marks a serious slide into the Hollywood-ization of political life, and an unfortunate mixing together of private and public spheres. Mme Carla Bruni-Sarkozy certainly has a beautiful voice but it isn't the voice of France."

Here Carla Bruni and Michelle Obama become quick friends as Carla began to embrace her philanthropic lifestyle.

In an unauthorized biography written about Carla, she is said to have remarked, comparing herself to other leaders’ wives, "I’m so different. I was a model. I sing, and I want to continue to sing. And on top of that you expect me to be subtle? I am a femme fatale, my dear."

Once she married Nicolas Sarkozy, Carla Bruni's life took a dramatic change. Her former bohemian look morphed into a more tailored, sartorial image dressed in Dior. She immediately began accompanying Sarkozy on visits to officials and summits.

The relationship between Carla Bruni and Sarkozy has not gone without commentary. Following a  very difficult first year as president, he was said to have "paraded for media coverage his billionaire-life-style-affair....within weeks of meeting her following his divorce from his second wife, Cecilia Sarkozy." He was called "vulgar" and "an insecure celebrity-worshipper focused only on himself and his place in the limelight," according to The Guardian British newspaper.

In 2007, Carla Bruni was seen on a date in Egypt with Nicolas Sarcozy, President of France. The couple were married in February 2008 and quickly embarked on a string of official visits, where all eyes were on the new first lady with the odd past.

Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi was born in Turin, Italy, and is heiress to the fortune created by the Italian tire manufacturing company CEAT.

She signed with City Models at age 19 working for such brands as Guess? Inc, Christian Dior, Givenchy Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Yves Saint-Laurent and Versace.


By the 1990s, Bruni was claimed to be among the 20 highest-paid fashion models, earning an estimated $7.5 million a year.

While modeling, Bruni 's romances with Eric Clapton, followed by Mick Jagger made the gossip columns.

In 1997, Bruni quit the world of fashion and devoted herself to music. She co-wrote her debut album, 'Quelqu'un m'a dit' ('Someone Told Me'), with Julien Clerc in 1999. Her second album contained poems by William Butler Yeats, Emily Dickinson, W. H. Auden, Dorothy Parker, and Christina Rossetti, set to music.

Once an international super-model, Carla Bruni is now the First Lady of France... and a mother, for a second time.

Speaking to the French publication, 'Nice-Matin', she remarked, "the unexpected is always the unexpected" as she unveiled her round belly at the G8 in Deauville.

So who is Carla Bruni? What secrets does she hold and how did she come to be one of the most notable women in the international scene?

Keep clicking to find out...

Carla Bruni gave birth to her daughter, Giulia, yesterday and we are all anxiously awaiting the photos. But Carla Bruni has pledged that no-one will ever see a picture of the child. Despite being one of the most photographed women in the world, the former super-model and songwriter said she did not want her second child to become used for publicity. Perhaps this was a throwback to the sales of her nude photos after her marriage to the President of France.

Whatever it is, she told the British Daily Mail, "I will never show a photograph of this child and will never expose it."


"My eldest son was exposed once and not in a public situation but in a private situation and it was a great error. I should never have taken my son to visit this magnificent site. I should have foreseen that there would be photographers there. I was careless." She has been noted to keep her older son, Aurelien, under close wraps.


Click through to see more of her transformation from supermodel to the First Lady of France.