A constant gardener: How Sarkozy wooed his ex-supermodel wife

Sep 26, 2011, 9:57 GMT

Paris - President Nicolas Sarkozy captured the heart of his ex-supermodel wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy by displaying a keen interest in gardening, France's first lady has revealed in a BBC interview.

'When I met him, walking around the garden in the Palais of the Elysee, he keeps giving me all these flowers' names,' Bruni-Sarkozy, who is expecting the couple's first child next month, said, in an interview to be broadcast Tuesday.

'He knows all the Latin names, all these details about tulips and roses.

I said to myself: 'My God, I must marry this man, he's the president and he knows everything about flowers as well. This is incredible,' she told veteran French journalist Christine Ockrent.

The president, 56, and his wife, 43, are expecting a child in October.

The baby will be the first born to a sitting French president and comes as the father of three sons from two previous marriages prepares to seek a second term in elections next year.

'I guess it's the modern world going into the French Republic, which is not bad,' Bruni-Sarkozy, 43, who has a son from a previous relationship, said.

The media-shy model-turned-folk singer has vowed to shield the infant from the media glare and said there will be no official photographs.

The president himself has refused all comment on the pregnancy.

In the interview, which comes as Sarkozy's party reels from a historic defeat in elections to the Senate, Bruni-Sarkozy presented her husband as a workaholic with a 'rock-and-roll' side.

'Marrying him is very rock-and-roll for someone like me,' she said, laughing. 'Also from his side, it's very rock-and-roll, you know - after all, I'm a songwriter!'

With just seven months to the election Sarkozy is trailing in opinion polls behind the frontrunner for the Socialist Party nomination, Francois Hollande.

When Sarkozy is no longer president, Bruni-Sarkozy said she hoped to returned full-time to touring.

As for her husband, she said: 'After taking care of France in the way he did it, I think you can do absolutely any other job.'