Story highlights
Former first lady is in India to lend support to anti-hunger charity
"I feel good, I feel very happy to be here," Valerie Trierweiler tells reporters
French President Francois Hollande announced the split on Saturday
Allegations about Hollande's personal life fueled a media frenzy
With the world’s eyes on her after a media frenzy over her former partner’s alleged affair, France’s former first lady, Valerie Trierweiler, said Monday she was doing fine and told people not to worry about her.
The former partner of French President Francois Hollande made her first public appearance two days after bidding farewell to the Elysee presidential palace, following global headlines about Hollande’s alleged affair with an actress.
Smiling and dressed in a salmon pink top, Trierweiler addressed reporters during a trip to Mumbai, India, where she is lending her support to an anti-hunger charity.
“I feel good, I feel very happy to be here,” she told a news conference intended to highlight the work of the Action Against Hunger charity in India.
“Do not worry about me.”
Trierweiler left Paris discreetly on Sunday. On arrival in Mumbai she was greeted by a media scrum, which followed her as she visited a hospital and met patients in a campaign against child malnutrition. The trip had been planned months ago.
During the news conference, Trierweiler described the emotion she felt holding a young child.
“I will continue to fight against (child malnutrition). This trip has been in the works for months. I would not have missed this engagement for anything,” she said.
Goodbye message
Hollande meanwhile traveled to Turkey on Monday for a state visit. The trip is his first public appearance since declaring on Saturday that his relationship with Trierweiler was over.
“I wish to make it known that I have ended my shared life (partnership) with Valerie Trierweiler,” Hollande told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Trierweiler sent a goodbye message Saturday via Twitter to the staff at the presidential palace.
“All my gratitude goes to the extraordinary people at the Elysee. I will never forget the devotion or emotion at the time of leaving,” she wrote.
Hollande’s private life has been the subject of global headlines since the French magazine Closer claimed this month he’d been having an affair with actress Julie Gayet for two years.
French president says it’s over
U.S. trip planned for February
Hollande has not confirmed or denied the alleged affair but did threaten legal action. At his first news conference of the year, Hollande said he and Trierweiler were going through “painful moments.”
The allegations had left Trierweiler’s position in some doubt ahead of a planned trip to Washington in February.
She had been Hollande’s partner for several years. An arts columnist for weekly magazine Paris Match, she was not married to Hollande but assumed the role of first lady at official functions following his election in May 2012.
Last week,Trierweiler left the hospital where she had spent a week being treated for stress and fatigue, Paris Match reported. The magazine also said she would recover for “several days” in an official residence in Versailles.
Hollande, 59, has seen his personal approval ratings plummet since his election, although this has been attributed to dissatisfaction with his leadership rather than disapproval of his private life.
A recent survey by French pollster Ifop with the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche found that more than 80% of respondents had not changed their opinion of the President based on the allegations of an affair.
