![French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants Eric Clapton's ex Carla Bruni as wife No 3]( "French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants Eric Clapton's ex Carla Bruni as wife No 3")
French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants Eric Clapton's ex Carla Bruni as wife No 3
Newly-divorced French president Nicolas Sarkozy plans to marry his supermodel lover Carla Bruni.
After a romance which began only last month and became fully public just this week, it has now emerged that the president has proposed.
A source at his UMP party said he was "extremely keen to marry as quickly as possible".
"Mr Sarkozy has a habit of getting what he wants, and does not hang about," said the source.
"He needs a First Lady urgently and Carla fits the bill."
Speculation has been rife about who 53-year-old Mr Sarkozy has been seeing since he split from his second wife Cecilia on October 19.
He was spotted with Miss Bruni, whose previous lovers include Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, at Disneyland Paris at the weekend.
The couple are planning a party to celebrate her 40th birthday on Saturday and an engagement announcement is likely to follow.
He has a son, Louis, 10, from his marriage to Cecilia, as well as two grown-up sons from his first marriage.
Miss Bruni has a six-year-old son, Aurelien with philosophy professor RaphaÎl Enthoven.
Both young boys were there on the outing to Disneyland.
Miss Bruni's mother Marisa Tedeschi Bruni said she was delighted.
"It makes me very happy to see her so radiant."
But Mr Sarkozy's mother may not share such enthusiasm. Andree Sarkozy, 82, said recently that her son would be "spoilt for choice", but that she had "had enough of brides".
There are also political differences to consider.
In interviews at the time of the French elections in May, when Mr Sarkozy was still married to Cecilia, Miss Bruni stated that she had always been on the political Left.
If she had been French, she would have voted for Mr Sarkozy's Socialist opponent Segolene Royal, she said.
