Carla Bruni remembers the evening she met Nicolas Sarkozy, seventeen years ago. And it was love at first sight

Csays Bruni56 years old, wanted to remember with a romantic message on Instagram the day he met Nicolas Sarkozy, November 13, 2007: «17 years ago the day we met. Thank you life for giving us this incredible love».

The meeting happened during a dinner organized by the advertiser Jacques Séguéla. The then President of the French Republic had recently divorced his wife Cécilia Attias. Séguéla told al Corriere della Sera: «Nicolas was very alone. The divorce from Cécilia had upset him. He says to me: “Listen Jacques, organize a dinner for me at your house with your tour, I can’t stand spending the evenings alone at the Elysée anymore”.

Sarkozy that evening he arrived late and without a tie at dinner. Again according to Séguéla, Carla Bruni was gorgeous, «a Diana the huntress with velvet claws»: «It was an unexpected game of seduction between two wild animals”, started by the model herself who came forward calling the president “tu” and telling him that she was well aware of his reputation as a womanizer. Sarkozy replied: «My reputation is no worse than yours. I know you well even without having ever met you. I know everything about you because I’m like you.” And he went so far as to promise her: «We will announce our engagement. We will be better than Marilyn and Jfk». They exchanged telephone numbers, he accompanied her home in the presidential car and invited her to Egypt for the Christmas holidays. As soon as she got into the house, Carla Bruni called Séguéla: «That friend of yours… what elegance, what intelligence, how much attention, what energy, what seduction. But I also find him a bit rude. I left him my number and he still hasn’t called me.”

Things went quickly, because after a few weeks the couple was photographed in Eurodisneyat Christmas in Egypt and Jordan and February 2, 2008 they got married at the Elyséein a private ceremony. Years later she recalled how immediately struck she was by that man “interested in all kinds of subjects”, even gardening: “When I met him, walking through the Elysée gardens, he began to list me all the names of the plants. He knew all the names in Latin, every detail about tulips and the rose. I said to myself: “Oh my god, I have to marry this man, he’s the president and he even knows about flowers. It’s an incredible thing.”

Carla Bruni, in a chat Instagram with her friend Naomi Campbell, she recalled: «It was a love at first sight and it was crazy, because I never expected at my age, at 40, to fall in love like a little girl». Together, in 2011, they had their daughter Giulia. Interviewed by Francesca Fagnani in the broadcast Beaststhe former model turned singer said that with Sarkozy she immediately felt safe: “It’s the first time I’ve met someone capable of protecting me.” When they met, she had just divorced Raphaël Enthoven, with whom she had her son Aurélien. For him he decided to change his attitude on loyalty: «When I introduced myself I said: “Hi, I’m Carla, I’m not faithful. Don’t be faithful to me because I don’t care.” I would be jealous if I knew of a betrayal, but I wouldn’t leave because of that.”

Love at first sight, therefore, has been going on for 17 years, without wavering in the face of the possibilities betrayals and, who knows, of legal troublessince the former premier dame is under investigation for a case of fraud and corruption in which Nicolas Sarkozy is involved.