Two years after their marriage, Sarkozy presided as Mayor of Neuilly at the wedding of Cecilia and Jacques Martin, a television personality. Unbeknown to Culioli, he fell in love with Cecilia.

Culioli discovered that Sarkozy was having an affair in 1988 when the two couples went skiing in the Alpine resort of Megve. “Marie drummed on the door of Cecilia’s room. There was a sound inside. (She saw) Nicolas’s footsteps in the snow,” the authors write.

Culioli did not want a divorce and Sarkozy “went backwards and forwards between the two women”, according to the book. She had borne Sarkozy two sons, Pierre in 1985 and Jean the following year, whom she told: “One day your father will be President of the Republic.”