France’s first lady delivers baby girl

PARIS – French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy gave birth to a baby girl on Wednesday night – the first infant born to a sitting president of modern-day France, the French media reported.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, finishing up a meeting in Frankfurt on the euro debt crisis, was absent when the couple’s first child was born shortly before 8 p.m., according to BFM TV. He reportedly arrived at the small, private Muette Clinic about 11 p.m.

Europe 1 radio said the birth “went well” for the 43-year-old mother, a singer and former supermodel.

There was no official confirmation of the birth. The couple had been coy about the impending birth from the start, with measured doses of information.

The couple married in February 2008, less than a year after Sarkozy took office and less than four months after his divorce from second wife Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz. The Italian-born first lady has a 10-year-old son from a previous relationship and the president has three sons from his two previous marriages – and is a grandfather since January.