BERLIN, May 17 (Reuters) - Nicolas Sarkozy's father was quoted by a German newspaper on Tuesday as saying the French president's wife, Carla Bruni, is expecting a child, apparently confirming the subject of weeks of speculation.
Hints that the former supermodel is pregnant have swirled in France ever since she clutched a shawl to her belly during a newspaper interview in early May and fended off inquiries with the words "my lips are sealed to protect something…".
Bruni wore a loose shirt and jacket during an appearance on French TF1 television on Tuesday, and when the presenter told her he would not ask about her personal life but would like to congratulate her, she giggled and congratulated him back. "The two do not want to know the gender in advance, but I’m sure it will be a girl and as beautiful as Carla," the mass-selling Bild newspaper quoted Pal Sarkozy as saying.
With the normally very slender Bruni looking heavier around the middle, some French media have reported she could even be expecting twins.
Sarkozy, the most unpopular French leader in decades and facing a tough battle for reelection a year from now, could enjoy a lift to his ratings from a presidential birth.
His chances of re-election may have improved this week when the opinion poll frontrunner, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested in New York and charged with attempting to rape a hotel maid.
Italian-born Bruni, 43, has a son from a former relationship but has often said she would like to have a child with Sarkozy. The couple married following a whirlwind romance after he won the 2007 election and his former wife Cecilia left him.
