French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia are to divorce by mutual consent after eleven years of marriage.
The Elysee Palace released statements to confirm the split as weeks of speculation reached fever pitch and newspapers for the first time devoted extensive front-page reports to the collapse of the marriage.
As the news broke, Mr Sarkozy left for an EU summit in Lisbon.
The couple have a ten-year-old son. They have had a difficult marriage, and broke up for several months in 2005 when Ms Sarkozy went to New York to be with an advertising executive.
They reconciled but have barely been seen together since 52-year-old Mr Sarkozy took office as President last May.
Cecilia Sarkozy never moved into the Elysee palace, and her last public appearance was in September at the funeral of her first husband, television presenter Jacques Martin.
It is not immediately clear if the divorce procedures have been concluded.
Le Monde newspaper reported that the couple have set a date six weeks from now to conclude the process before a judge.
The couple first met in 1984 when Mr Sarkozy - then mayor of the Paris suburb of Neuilly - officiated at her wedding to Martin.
Both later divorced and 12 years later they were married. Each had two children from their first marriages, and their son Louis was born in 1997.
A former model who worked as a parliamentary assistant and her husband's ministerial adviser, Cecilia made no secret of her impatience with the conventional idea of being the president's wife.
Some constitutional experts say there could be difficulties obtaining a divorce because the president's position as guarantor of the law means he cannot appear before a judge.
However, others said a divorce by mutual consent should not pose problems.
