BBC: She wanted to "live in the shadows" but her husband wanted to live in the limelight.
So Cecilia summed up the inevitability of her marriage breakdown today in the French newspaper, L'Est Republicain.
The 49-year-old former model insisted they had "tried everything" to stay together. And even though she had run off to New York in 2005 with an advertising executive, she said she had returned with every intention of rebuilding her relationship.
"What happened to me has happened to millions of people," she said. "One day you just don't have your place in the couple... it does not work anymore."
France's former first lady went on to say she now wanted time to be able to put her family first.
The couple, who were both on their second marriage, had one child together, Louis, aged 11. They also had two children each from their previous marriages.
But for someone who explained her public absences by claiming it was a way "to not show oneself, not expose oneself, to protect oneself", Cecilia has been quick off the mark to get her side of the story in the press.
Especially so when the official divorce statement from the Elysee stated clearly that neither side wished to comment on their separation. Sarkozy split: Adieu to an ideal (more)
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Nicolas and Cécilia divorce
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE:
Pour les Français, le divorce des Sarkozy est «une affaire privée»
Mark Alexander
