PARIS — The tale is the latest in a series of amorous sideshows that has spiced up the French political scene. These increasingly complicated liaisons have gnawed away at the country’s long-standing veil of silence over top politicians’ private lives.

Today, the press doesn’t shirk at recounting the jealousies of President Francois Hollande’s live-in companion toward the mother of his four children.  Or Sarkozy’s divorce while in office after his wife had an affair, and his quick remarriage to former model and singer Carla Bruni. Or the series of sexual lawsuits involving Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former chief of the International Monetary Fund.

 How the French media have fallen.

 Related: Sunday Globe Special: France's Femme Fatales

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Can't fall much farther than that.  

 Also see: Strauss-Kahn, hotel housekeeper settle civil suit

Court rebuffs Strauss-Kahn in sex case

Nor has it held back with the Rachida Dati case. Le Monde published a story suggesting that Dati entertained a string of eight lovers at the time she was seeing 68-year-old Dominique Desseigne, the multimillionaire owner of luxury hotels and casinos....   

Former French Justice Minister Rachida Dati had long refused to identify the father of her daughter.
Former French Justice Minister Rachida Dati had long refused to identify the father of her daughter (Laurent Rebours/ AP File).

She probably doesn't even know whose it is. 

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