Racy Details of French Leaders' Lives

Charles De Gaulle was faithful to France's "Aunt Yvonne", while other French leaders were linked to multiple trysts, and now unassuming President Francois Hollande allegedly has a new girlfriend.

After De Gaulle's term as president, during which the mere mention of a courtesan was inconceivable, Georges Pompidou was blindsided in 1968 by rumors stemming from the "Markovic affair" -- this time involving the leader's spouse.

Unfounded gossip held that Stephane Markovic, a bodyguard to actor Alain Delon, was killed because he had witnessed racy soirees at which Pompidou's wife Claude was allegedly present.

She later said that scandal mongers had "poisoned everything" in their lives.

The French public took notice when next president Valery Giscard d'Estaing took office and was linked with several paramours, notably the photographer Marie-Laure de Decker.

Another widely-remarked event was an early morning collision in September 1974 between a milk truck and Giscard, said to have been in the company of a well-known actress at the time.

After leaving office, Giscard himself alluded to affairs, but eventually laid to rest intimations that Britain's princess Diana might have been among them.

The most sensational public revelation was undoubtedly that by the magazine Paris Match on November 3, 1994, of a young woman presented as the biological daughter of president Francois Mitterrand.

Her existence was an open secret and two families, Mitterrand and Pingeot, stood side by side at the former president's funeral in January 1996.

Jacques Chirac had taken office a year earlier with an established reputation, his entourage even giving him the nickname, "five minutes, shower included."

In 2007, Chirac remarked in an interview that he "did not detest women" and added: "I never abused them."

Chirac downplayed a comment by his wife Bernadette meanwhile that with him, "women galloped by."

That same year, Nicolas Sarkozy became president and the popular press was in for a juicy story. He divorced his second wife a few months after taking office, and was subsequently seen at Disneyland Paris with former model Carla Bruni.

Widely-covered trips by the couple to Egypt and Jordan followed, and in January 2008, Sarkozy told a press conference "with Carla, it is serious."

Now French leaders' private lives are becoming more public as seen when Closer magazine reported that Hollande -- who lives with his partner Valerie Trierweiler -- is allegedly having an affair with French actress Julie Gayet under a headline calling her his "secret love."

Hollande told Agence France Presse in a statement that he, "like every other citizen has a right" to privacy.