BERLIN, May 17 – The wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is expecting a child, the president\’s father told Tuesday\’s edition of the German Bild newspaper.
"I\’m glad to be having a grandchild," Pal Sarkozy, 82, told Europe\’s most widely-read newspaper.
Neither the president nor his wife "want to know the sex the child, but I\’m sure it\’s a girl who\’ll be as beautiful as Carla," he added.
A cryptic television interview by France\’s 43-year-old first lady on Monday had fuelled speculation she was pregnant.
Journalists had widely expected Bruni to announce she was pregnant when she scheduled a live interview on the top lunchtime news show on France\’s TF1 channel, but she tantalisingly avoided confirming it openly.
Instead of asking the million-dollar question, presenter Jean-Pierre Pernaut quizzed Bruni for several minutes on her charity work against child illiteracy, before dispatching the pregnancy issue in a matter of seconds.
"I know you don\’t like people talking about your private life, but I just want to congratulate you," Pernaut said.
The supermodel-turned-singer Bruni smiled shyly and replied: "I congratulate you too," without saying what for. The interview then ended.