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Three's a charm for Sarkozy ex
22/03/2008 18:15 - (SA)
New York - Three days of celebrations to mark the marriage of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife and her Moroccan-born lover kicked off near New York on Friday, guests of the couple told AFP.
Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz and events organiser Richard Attias were due to tie the knot over the weekend, the guests said, as they left their upmarket Manhattan hotel for a party at Attias's Connecticut home late Friday.
Details surrounding the wedding ceremony itself have been shrouded in secrecy, with rumors swirling that the couple could hold a Jewish ceremony at a New York synagogue on Sunday.
But even the guests, who asked not to be named, said they did not know where and when the ceremony would take place. One said he expected the ceremony to be on Sunday, followed by a reception at the Rockefeller Center.
He added that the invitees, a total of 150 of whom were expected to attend the weekend celebrations, would go out for a Tex-Mex meal on Saturday and take in the ABBA-themed Broadway show Mama Mia!
According to reports, guests were told not to bring cameras or phones with cameras, to protect the couple's privacy.
Reports in the French press, meanwhile, said that popular French magazine Paris-Match had declined an offer to cover the wedding exclusively, apparently over fears of upsetting Sarkozy.
Arnaud Lagardere, the owner of the magazine, is known to be close to the French president.
Rumors have been circulating for weeks that Sarkozy's ex-wife, 50, was to marry Attias, 48, and Italian fashion house Versace said earlier this month it would be dressing the couple for the occasion.
Ciganer-Albeniz and Sarkozy announced their divorce on October 18, ending a stormy 11-year marriage. The couple had one son, Louis, together.
Sarkozy, 53, married Carla Bruni, the Italian-born former model turned singer-songwriter, in February, less than four months after his divorce.
Ciganer-Albeniz's involvement with Attias first became public when the couple were photographed stepping out of a New York hotel together in 2005, during a break in Ciganer-Albeniz's marriage to Sarkozy.
- AFP
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