Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz (b. November 12, 1957, Boulogne-Billancourt, France) was the second wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Sarkozys started divorce proceedings on October 10, 2007 and eight days later, the Élysée Palace announced that the couple had separated. Later that day, the palace corrected that announcement by stating that the couple had officially divorced.

The former first lady of France was born Cécilia María Sara Isabel Ciganer-Albéniz. Her father, André Ciganer (né Aron Chouganov) was a Russian émigré believed to be of Jewish and Roma origin, who was born in Bălţi, Moldova in 1898. He left home at the age of 13, just before the First World War. Ciganer moved to Paris, where he became a furrier. In 1937 he married Spanish-Belgian Teresita (a.k.a. Diane) Albéniz de Swert, a daughter of Alfonso Albéniz Jordana, a Spanish diplomat who played with Real Madrid in the early 1900s. Her maternal great-grandfather was the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz.

Born with a heart defect, she suffered from cardiac problems which hampered her growth. She underwent open cardiac surgery when she was 13, and she made up quickly for her growth delay. She stands 1.78 m (5` 10") tall.

She studied piano (first prize in piano at Conservatoire), and obtained a baccalauréat B, after studying for 13 years in a French religious institution, Sœurs de Lübeck. She studied law in Assas. She went on to drop law school and became a parliamentary assistant to René Touzet. She also was a fitting model for Schiaparelli, the French fashion house, and worked for a public-relations company.

Cécilia Sarkozy has three older brothers:

Patrick Ciganer is a program executive officer of the Integrative Financial Management Program of NASA.

Christian Ciganer-Albéniz is a consultant for companies such as Framatome, AXA, Lagardère, Crédit Foncier, Accor, and Aurel Conseil.

Ivan Antoine Ciganer-Albéniz is sales director of movistar Peru and the commercial advisor and president of the Franco-Peruvian Chamber of Commerce.

After cancelling her wedding to the photographer Jean-Daniel Lorieux, with whom she worked as an assistant, Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz moved in with the popular French TV host Jacques Martin in 1983. They married on 10 August 1984. The bride was 26 years old and nine months` pregnant; the groom was 52. Her wedding witness was a childhood friend, Conrada de la Brosse, the wife of publicity agent François de la Brosse. The wedding took place in Neuilly-sur-Seine at the town hall, and Nicolas Sarkozy, then the mayor of Neuilly, conducted the wedding. The Martins had two daughters, Judith Martin (b. August 22, 1984) and Jeanne-Marie Martin (b. June 8, 1987).

Nicolas Sarkozy, who was married to his first wife at the time, met his future wife again three years later and has said he felt "struck by lightning". Other sources, however, state at Sarkozy fell in love with the bride on her wedding day. In any case, Cécilia Martin would leave her husband to live with Sarkozy in 1988 and obtained a divorce a year later. According to a lengthy profile published in American Vogue in December 2007, despite the fact that Sarkozy was still married, Cécilia insisted on being called Madame Sarkozy, though the hostesses of Neuilly reportedly referred to her as "the mayor`s whore". Once Sarkozy had himself obtained a divorce in 1996, they married in Neuilly on October 23, 1996. The witnesses we

Post a Comment | View All Comments (1)