French ex-first lady tried to commit suicide

In an explosive book to be published tomorrow, the former French First Lady Valérie Trierweiler says that she tried to take an overdose of sleeping pills when she heard that President François Hollande was having an affair with an actress.

The incident – denied by the Elysée Palace at the time – is described in an extract from the book published today by the magazine Paris Match.

Ms Trierweiler says that she wanted to “sleep” and did not want to “live through” the humiliation which lay ahead.  She does not say that she intended to kill herself but she admits wrestling with the President to take as many pills as she could.

“The news about [Hollande's affair with] Julie Gayet was top of the news that morning. I cracked. I couldn't listen to it any more. I ran into the bathroom and grabbed the little plastic bag of sleeping pills,” Ms Trierweiler writes.

“François followed me. He tried to rip the bag out of my hand. I ran into the bedroom. He got hold of the bag and it ripped. Pills fell all over the bed and the floor. I got hold of some of them and swallowed as many as I could.”

“I wanted to sleep. I didn't want to live through the hours (of humiliation) that were coming. I knew that a storm was going to break over my head and I didn't have the strength to go through it. I wanted to run from it. I lost consciousness.”