Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife Cecilia lost a court bid to block the release of a book in which she is quoted as describing the French president as a womaniser and uncaring father.
PARIS: Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife Cecilia on Friday lost a court bid to block the release of a book in which she is quoted as describing the French president as a womaniser and uncaring father.
The Paris civil court rejected the request from Cecilia for an injunction to prevent 'Cecilia' by former friend and journalist Anna Bitton from hitting the bookstores.
Cecilia's lawyer Michele Cahen immediately announced that the ex-first lady would appeal the decision before a higher court, which could hear the case later on Friday.
It is one of three books on Cecilia set for release this week, once again putting the spotlight on Sarkozy's personal life at a time when the president's approval rating has slumped.
At a court hearing on Thursday, lawyers for Cecilia had argued that the book -- excerpts of which have been published at length in French magazines and newspapers - 'seriously violated her right to privacy'.
In the book, Cecilia is quoted as describing Sarkozy as a 'womaniser' and 'stingy', 'a man who loves no one, not even his children'.
The former first lady, whose divorce from Sarkozy was announced in October, attacks the president's entourage as a 'gang of young guys, drunk on power who take themselves for the princes of Paris', according to the excerpts.
She is also reported as saying he had a 'real behavioural problem' and his conduct was often unbecoming of a French head of state in the book that also touches on her affair with American events organizer Richard Attias, for whom she left Sarkozy briefly in 2005.
The book also reveals that Cecilia had political ambitions of her own and was hoping to run for municipal office in the chic Paris suburb of Neuilly in 2008, before Sarkozy vetoed that plan. The wave of books on Cecilia were scheduled for release just days after Sarkozy all but confirmed his engagement to Italian ex-supermodel and pop singer Carla Bruni.
Lawyers for Cecilia had demanded a full injunction on the book's release and fines of 200,000 euros (294,000 dollars) per copy that becomes public. Cecilia was not present at the hearing on Thursday.
In October, Sarkozy became the first French president to divorce while in office when he ended his stormy 11-year marriage to Cecilia, with whom he has a 10-year-old son, Louis.
He also has two sons, Pierre, 22, and Jean, 21, from a previous marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli.
The 52-year-old president told a news conference on Tuesday that his new romance with Bruni was 'serious' and suggested the couple would soon marry.
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