Quelle surprise! The French presidential hopeful, 63, and a secret lovechild with PA, 28
Married Right-wing firebrand fails in legal bid to quash publicity
IT is almost de rigueur for leading French politicians to have a colourful love life.
But from the actress who was former president Francois Hollande’s mistress to ex-premier Francois Mitterrand’s secret second family, such matters are usually met with a Gallic shrug by voters.
So presidential hopeful – and married far-Right firebrand – Eric Zemmour, 63, must be hoping for the same insouciance after losing a legal fight to hide an affair with his 28-year-old assistant, who is expecting his love child. He took legal action to stop French gossip magazine Closer from publishing details of his relationship with Sarah Knafo.
But the privacy application was thrown out of court and yesterday the magazine ran the headline ‘Eric Zemmour is going to be a daddy in 2022’.
Next year is also when Mr Zemmour, who has race hate convictions, hopes to go head to head with Emmanuel Macron for the presidency.
Mr Zemmour and Miss Knafo had complained of ‘invasion of privacy’, but Paris judges ruled otherwise. The pair are extremely high profile, and were pictured over the summer in an intimate clinch as they swam in the sea.
In a previous issue in October, Closer featured a photo of Mr Zemmour with a picture of his wife, lawyer Mylene Chichportich, whom he married in 1982. The couple have three grown-up children, and journalists claimed it was in the public interest to know about his affair with Miss Knafo.
Lawyers for Mr Zemmour, who is thought to be separated from his wife, used EU human rights legislation to get the Closer edition and its online coverage banned.
Closer was taken to court by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for printing topless images of Kate in 2012 as the royals holidayed in Provence. Judges said their privacy had been invaded and awarded them £91,000 in compensation.
Mr Zemmour went on trial in Paris this month for ‘complicity in provoking racial hatred and racial insult’ after calling child migrants ‘thieves, rapists and murderers’.
The magazine journalist turned TV pundit has already been convicted twice on similar charges.
He frequently rages against Muslims, black people and anyone from an immigrant background.
He has also been accused of antiSemitism after denying – against historical evidence – that the French collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust.
However, Mr Zemmour is riding high in the polls, and history shows that revelations about his affair are unlikely to put voters off. Mr Mitterrand kept his lover and secret daughter at taxpayers’ expense until his death in 1996.
His successor, Jacques Chirac, had a string of mistresses and was dubbed ‘Mr Three Minutes, Shower Included’ for his promiscuity.
He was followed by Nicolas Sarkozy also used his position at the Elysee Palace to pursue girlfriends, divorced his second wife while in office and married former supermodel Carla Bruni.
It comes as Michel Aupetit, Archbishop of Paris, offered his resignation to Pope Francis yesterday following claims of an ‘intimate relationship’. He admits ‘ambiguous behaviour’ with a woman.
‘Going to be a daddy in 2022’