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French president, wife divorced by `mutual consent'

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia have divorced by mutual consent after an often tempestuous 11 year marriage.

The Elysee Palace confirmed the split as weeks of speculation reached fever pitch and newspapers devoted extensive front-page reports to the collapse of the marriage.

"Cecilia and Nicolas Sarkozy announce their separation by mutual consent. They will make no comment," a terse first communique said.

A later statement said the couple had "divorced by mutual consent."

A lawyer for the couple, Michele Cahen, said a judge had pronounced the divorce and that the terms of the separation had been agreed.

"Everything went very well, without the slightest problem," Cahen told French radio.

Their son Louis will live with his mother and see his father regularly, the lawyer added.

French government spokesman Laurent Wauquiez said Sarkozy's divorce would "not affect his public commitment and his energy."

"There is a separation between the president's public commitment -- which can be judged by the concrete work he does for French people, the energy that he puts into it and his desire to shake up the politically correct in this country -- and his private life which is his concern," the spokesman told French radio.

The Sarkozys had a notoriously difficult marriage, breaking up for several months in 2005 when Cecilia ran away with an advertising executive to New York. Sarkozy was linked to another woman before he reconciled with his wife.

But they have barely been seen together since Sarkozy, 52, took office in May. Cecilia never moved into the Elysee Palace and her last public appearance was last month at the funeral of her first husband.

"She didn't want to participate in presidential life or in public life. It was inevitable," said Partrick Balkany, a member of Sarkozy's UMP party.
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