Cécilia Attias told a US news programme that her husband had been openly pursued by other women when they were married.

 

"/> Cécilia Attias told a US news programme that her husband had been openly pursued by other women when they were married.

 

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Sarkozy’s ex-wife tells of President’s ‘groupies’

Cécilia Attias told a US news programme that her husband had been openly pursued by other women when they were married.

 

Cécilia, who now lives in the US with her husband Richard Attias, was part of a panel discussing women, politics and power. The discussion was hosted by American journalist Christiane Amanpour on the ABC network. It follows recent scandals involving former IMF President Dominique Strauss Kahn and US Congressman Anthony Weiner.

 

Attias joined a panel with two other women to talk about the impact of the scandals and the struggles women face in the political and corporate world. 

 

She told Amanpour that women are still “attracted by power” and that during her time married to Sarkozy she “saw women giving their phone numbers to him even if I was just next to him”.

 

Cécilia Attias now runs a foundation for women in New York that seeks to improve equality and well-being for women. 

 

Attias married Nicolas Sarkozy in 1996, the second marriage for both of them. They divorced in October 2007 and she married Richard Attias, chairman of an events management company, shortly afterwards in March 2008.

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France taken to European Court over divorce ruling that woman had ‘marital duty’ to have sex with husband

A case has been brought against France at the European Court of Human Rights by a woman who lost a divorce case after judges ruled against her because she refused to have sex with her husband.

France taken to European Court over divorce ruling that woman had 'marital duty' to have sex with husband
Photo: Frederick Florin/AFP

The woman, who has not been named, has brought the case with the backing of two French feminist groups, arguing that the French court ruling contravened human rights legislation by “interference in private life” and “violation of physical integrity”.

It comes after a ruling in the Appeals Court in Versailles which pronounced a fault divorce in 2019 because of her refusal to have sex with her husband.

READ ALSO The divorce laws in France that foreigners need to be aware of

The court ruled that the facts of the case “established by the admission of the wife, constitute a serious and renewed violation of the duties and obligations of marriage making intolerable the maintenance of a shared life”.

Feminist groups Fondation des femmes (Women’s Foundation) and Collectif fĂ©ministe contre le viol (Feminist Collective against Rape) have backed her appeal, deploring the fact that French justice “continues to impose the marital duty” and “thus denying the right of women to consent or not to sexual relations”.

“Marriage is not and should not be a sexual servitude,” the joint statement says, pointing out that in 47 percent of the 94,000 recorded rapes and attempted rapes per year, the aggressor is the spouse or ex-spouse of the victim.

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