In February 2015, I managed to get an exclusive interview with Valerie Trierweiler, the ex-girlfriend of French President François Hollande. I met her in London, where she told me more about her book Thank You For the Moment and her time at the Elysée Palace. No other monthly magazine was granted an interview with her, but she also did interviews with BBC Newsnight, BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour and The Times.
No place for a woman?
President Hollande’s ex-partner VALÉRIE TRIERWEILER tells Carolyn Boyd what it is like to be a female at the centre of French politics and her hopes for the role of First Lady of France
It may not be the French way of doing things, but the taboo-breaking, kiss-and-tell book written by the President’s ex, Valérie Trierweiler, has done more than simply exact revenge on an unfaithful partner. Instead, her book Thank You for This Moment, about her time at the Élysée Palace, has raised important questions about the role of the First Lady and, perhaps more fundamentally, the role of women in French politics. As well as offering an exposé on her nine-year relationship with François Hollande, Trierweiler also accuses French male politicians of blocking talented women from having their say. “I’ll tell you what it is that prevents women from becoming President, it is the male politicians,” Trierweiler tells FRANCE Magazine at an interview in London. “I don’t think it is the voters – the French will be ready for a female President long before the male politicians are.”