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Hollande distantly related to Hillary Clinton, claims book

US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is distantly related to French President Francois Hollande, according to a new book that claims they share royal blood from doomed kings of the 14th century.

Hollande distantly related to Hillary Clinton, claims book
Can you see the family resemblance? Photo: Thomas Samson/AFP
Clinton, whose maiden name is Rodham, descends on her mother's side from families from Canada's French-speaking province of Quebec, according to French geneologist Jean-Louis Beaucarnot.
   
These immigrant families can be traced back to more than a dozen regions all over France, Beaucarnot writes in his book “Dico des Politiques” which was published last Thursday.
 
Most notably, back 23 generations, she counts as a relative King Louis X le Hutin, known as “Louis the Stubborn” in English.
   
Ominously, he died after only 18 months on the throne — officially from pneumonia, although some historians have suggested he might have been poisoned. Hollande is distantly related to Louis' successor and brother, Philip V, known as “Philip The Tall”, who lasted six years before dying without a male heir.
   
As well as sickly kings, Clinton also shares genes with entertainers Madonna and Celine Dion and actress Angelina Jolie, Beaucarnot writes.  
 
Republican candidate Donald Trump traces the paternal side of his family back to Germany to the town of Kallstadt, whose other famous emigre is Henry Heinz, founder of the food giant that bears his name.
   
Trump's grandfather Friedrich emigrated from there to the US in 1885 where he started working as a hairdresser in New York before being lured by the gold rush further west.
   
He went on to make a fortune opening restaurants and bars used by miners and workers that offered alcohol and allegedly opium and prostitutes.    
 
Ahead of Tuesday's vote, the latest major survey, an ABC/Washington Post tracker released Sunday, gave Clinton a five-percentage point 48-43 lead over Trump nationally.
 
Here is a picture of Louis X, who ruled France from 29 November, 1314 to 5 June 1316. 
 

MEDIA

French president’s ex girlfriend says she has been sacked by magazine

Valerie Trierweiler, the ex-girlfriend of former French president François Hollande, said on Thursday that she had been sacked by Paris Match magazine.

French president's ex girlfriend says she has been sacked by magazine
Valerie Trierweiler wrote a tell-all book about the former president's affair. Photo: AFP

The journalist took revenge on Hollande for spurning her for actress Julie Gayet with a sensational 2014 kiss-and-tell memoir called Thank You for This Moment, which all but sank Hollande's presidency.

The book became an instant bestseller, and Hollande, a Socialist, never lived down his alleged references to the “toothless” poor.

Trierweiler, 55, had worked for the glossy weekly as a political correspondent, interviewer and columnist for three decades.

 

“I discovered in the middle of my summer holidays in an extremely brutal way that I have been sacked from Paris Match after 30 years,” Trierweiler said on Twitter.

“This sacking was for no reason and has left me shocked and astonished,” she added.

Trierweiler was famously admitted to hospital after Hollande's affair was revealed by paparazzi images of his nightly visits by scooter to Gayet's apartment.

The politician had tried to portray himself as a safe pair of hands “Mr Normal” in contrast to his mercurial predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy.

As well as spending most of her career at Paris Match, Trierweiler also interviews politicians for the French television channel Direct 8.

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