Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz
Encyclopedia
Cécilia María Sara Isabel Attias (née
Ciganer-Albéniz, previously Martin and Sarkozy) (born 12 November 1957) was the second wife of French president
Nicolas Sarkozy
until October 2007.
She married Richard Attias
, Executive Chairman of The Experience, an events management company, on March 23, 2008, in New York
's Rockefeller Center.
, Bessarabia
in 1898 of Russian
and Romanian
Jewish lineage, she believed that he was of Roma origin, because of the "Ciganer" surname; however it was later revealed that he was not. He left home at the age of 13, just before the First World War. Ciganer moved to Paris, where he became a furrier. In 1937 he married Spanish-Belgian
Diane Albéniz de Swert, a daughter of Alfonso Albéniz Jordana, a Spanish diplomat who played with Real Madrid
in the early 1900s. Her maternal great-grandfather was the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz
.
Cécilia Sarkozy Attias has three older brothers:
Born with a heart defect, she suffered from cardiac problems which hampered her growth. She underwent open cardiac surgery
when she was 13, and she made up quickly for her growth delay. She stands 1.78 m (5' 10") tall.
She studied piano (first prize in piano at Conservatoire
), and obtained a baccalauréat B, after studying for 13 years in a French religious institution, Sœurs de Lübeck. She studied law in Assas
. She went on to become a parliamentary assistant to René Touzet. She also was a fitting model for Schiaparelli
, the French fashion house, and worked for a public-relations company.
in 1983. They married on 10 August 1984. The wedding took place in Neuilly-sur-Seine
at the town hall, and Nicolas Sarkozy
, then the mayor of Neuilly, conducted the wedding. The Martins had two daughters, Judith Martin (b. August 22, 1984) and Jeanne-Marie Martin (b. June 8, 1987). She has a grandson, Augustin and a granddaughter Diane Elizabeth, born of her daughter Jeanne-Marie.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who was married to his first wife at the time, met his future wife again three years later and has said he felt "struck by lightning". Other sources, however, state that Sarkozy fell in love with the bride on her wedding day. In any case, Cécilia Martin would leave her husband to live with Sarkozy in 1988 and obtained a divorce three months later. Once Sarkozy had himself obtained a divorce in 1996, they married in Neuilly on October 23, 1996. The witnesses were Martin Bouygues
and billionaire businessman Bernard Arnault
. Six months later, on April 23, 1997, Cécilia Sarkozy gave birth to the couple's only child, Louis. Nicolas Sarkozy has two sons from his first marriage.
Nicolas Sarkozy once declared that his now-former wife was his "strength and [his] Achilles' heel
". Nicolas Sarkozy wrote in his 2005 book, Testimony, "Today, Cécilia and I are reunited for good, for real, doubtless for ever ... [W]e are not able and do not know how to separate from each other." He has said his wife is his "true soulmate" and "the person without whom nothing I do would be possible". In July 2007, he said, "At the end of the day, my only real worry is Cécilia."
twice in July 2007 to visit Muammar al-Gaddafi
and helped in securing the release of five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor
who had all spent years on Libya
's death row after allegedly being tortured into confessing to infecting Libyan babies with the HIV
virus. The French left asked for Cécilia Sarkozy to be heard by the Parliamentary Commission expected to be created in October 2007 concerning the terms of the release of the six, as she had played an "important role" in their liberation according to Pierre Moscovici
(PS).
The Associated Press
and CNN.com reported on October 18, 2007, that a divorce announcement was imminent. The New York Times
reported that same day that the Élysée Palace had released a statement declaring that the Sarkozys “announce their separation by mutual consent.” Shortly afterwards, the palace corrected the separation announcement by stating that the Sarkozys had actually officially divorced.
On 19 October 2007, an interview with Cécilia Sarkozy was published on the front page of L'Est Républicain
, a regional French newspaper. In it, she admitted that she had run away with her lover, Richard Attias, in 2005 ("I met someone, I fell in love, I left") and that though she eventually returned to Sarkozy, they were unable to repair their marriage. "What happened to me has happened to millions of people: one day you no longer have your place in the couple. The couple is no longer the essential thing of your life. It no longer functions; it no longer works."
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Ciganer-Albéniz, previously Martin and Sarkozy) (born 12 November 1957) was the second wife of French president
President of the French Republic
The President of the French Republic colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is France's elected Head of State....
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
until October 2007.
She married Richard Attias
Richard Attias
Richard Attias is a Moroccan global events producer, former chairman of PublicisLive and presently the Executive Chairman of the Experience Corporation...
, Executive Chairman of The Experience, an events management company, on March 23, 2008, in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
's Rockefeller Center.
Background
Cecilia Attias was born Cécilia María Sara Isabel Ciganer-Albéniz. Her elderly father, André Ciganer (born Aron Chouganov) was a Moldovan Jewish immigrant born in BălţiBalti
Balti can refer to:* Balti language, a language spoken in Baltistan in Pakistan and Ladakh in Kashmir* Balti people, Muslims of Ladakhi/Tibetan origin from Baltistan in Pakistan and Ladakh in Kashmir...
, Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
in 1898 of Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
and Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
Jewish lineage, she believed that he was of Roma origin, because of the "Ciganer" surname; however it was later revealed that he was not. He left home at the age of 13, just before the First World War. Ciganer moved to Paris, where he became a furrier. In 1937 he married Spanish-Belgian
Belgians
Belgians are people originating from the Kingdom of Belgium, a federal state in Western Europe.-Etymology:Belgians are a relatively "new" people...
Diane Albéniz de Swert, a daughter of Alfonso Albéniz Jordana, a Spanish diplomat who played with Real Madrid
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club have won a record 31 La Liga titles, the Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional , 18 Copas del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la...
in the early 1900s. Her maternal great-grandfather was the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
.
Cécilia Sarkozy Attias has three older brothers:
- Patrick Ciganer-Albeniz is a program executive officer of the Integrative Financial Management Program of NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
.
- Christian Ciganer-Albéniz is a consultantConsultantA consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
for companies such as FramatomeArevaAREVA is a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in the Tour Areva in Courbevoie, Paris. AREVA is mainly known for nuclear power; it also has interests in other energy projects. It was created on 3 September 2001, by the merger of Framatome , Cogema and...
, AXAAXAAXA S.A. is a French global insurance group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. AXA is a conglomerate of independently run businesses, operated according to the laws and regulations of many different countries. The AXA group of companies engage in life, health and other forms of...
, LagardèreLagardère GroupLagardère is a French-based multinational conglomerate headquartered in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The group once covered a broad range of industries but is now largely focused on the media sector, in which it is one of the world’s leading companies...
, Crédit FoncierCrédit Foncier de FranceCrédit Foncier de France is a national mortgage bank of France. A subsidiary of the Groupe Caisse d'Epargne, its headquarters is located in Charenton, 100 metres outside the Paris city limits.-History:...
, AccorAccorAccor is Europe's leading hotel group , part of the CAC 40 index , and operates in over 90 countries. Headquartered in Courcouronnes, Essonne, France, near Évry, France, the group owns, operates and franchises 4,229 hotels ranging from economy to luxury on five continents .Previously, the group...
, and Aurel Conseil.
- Ivan Antoine Ciganer-Albéniz
Born with a heart defect, she suffered from cardiac problems which hampered her growth. She underwent open cardiac surgery
Cardiac surgery
Cardiovascular surgery is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. Frequently, it is done to treat complications of ischemic heart disease , correct congenital heart disease, or treat valvular heart disease from various causes including endocarditis, rheumatic heart...
when she was 13, and she made up quickly for her growth delay. She stands 1.78 m (5' 10") tall.
She studied piano (first prize in piano at Conservatoire
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...
), and obtained a baccalauréat B, after studying for 13 years in a French religious institution, Sœurs de Lübeck. She studied law in Assas
University of Paris II: Panthéon-Assas
Pantheon-Assas Paris II University , also known as Assas, is a public research university in Paris, France. The 1968 cultural revolution, commonly known as the French May, resulted in the division of the world's second oldest academic institution, the University of Paris, into thirteen autonomous...
. She went on to become a parliamentary assistant to René Touzet. She also was a fitting model for Schiaparelli
Elsa Schiaparelli
Elsa Schiaparelli was an Italian fashion designer. Along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars. Starting with knitwear, Schiaparelli's designs were heavily influenced by Surrealists like her collaborators...
, the French fashion house, and worked for a public-relations company.
Private life
Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz moved in with the popular French TV host Jacques MartinJacques Martin (TV host)
Jacques Martin was a French TV host and producer.Martin was born in Lyon, Rhône. In the late 1960s he formed a comical duet of hosts on radio Europe 1 with French actor Jean Yanne....
in 1983. They married on 10 August 1984. The wedding took place in Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Although Neuilly is technically a suburb of Paris, it is immediately adjacent to the city and directly extends it. The area is composed of mostly wealthy, select residential...
at the town hall, and Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
, then the mayor of Neuilly, conducted the wedding. The Martins had two daughters, Judith Martin (b. August 22, 1984) and Jeanne-Marie Martin (b. June 8, 1987). She has a grandson, Augustin and a granddaughter Diane Elizabeth, born of her daughter Jeanne-Marie.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who was married to his first wife at the time, met his future wife again three years later and has said he felt "struck by lightning". Other sources, however, state that Sarkozy fell in love with the bride on her wedding day. In any case, Cécilia Martin would leave her husband to live with Sarkozy in 1988 and obtained a divorce three months later. Once Sarkozy had himself obtained a divorce in 1996, they married in Neuilly on October 23, 1996. The witnesses were Martin Bouygues
Martin Bouygues
Martin Bouygues, born 1952,is chairman and chief executive officer of the French company Bouygues; founded by his father Francis in 1952. In 2006 he was listed at the worlds 214th richest person, and a billionaire....
and billionaire businessman Bernard Arnault
Bernard Arnault
Bernard Arnault is a French business magnate who is best known as the chairman and CEO of the French conglomerate LVMH. According to Forbes Magazine, Arnault is the world's 4th and Europe's richest person, with a 2011 net worth of US$41 billion.-Education and business career:Arnault was born...
. Six months later, on April 23, 1997, Cécilia Sarkozy gave birth to the couple's only child, Louis. Nicolas Sarkozy has two sons from his first marriage.
Nicolas Sarkozy once declared that his now-former wife was his "strength and [his] Achilles' heel
Achilles' heel
An Achilles’ heel is a deadly weakness in spite of overall strength, that can actually or potentially lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, metaphorical references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to downfall are common.- Origin :In Greek...
". Nicolas Sarkozy wrote in his 2005 book, Testimony, "Today, Cécilia and I are reunited for good, for real, doubtless for ever ... [W]e are not able and do not know how to separate from each other." He has said his wife is his "true soulmate" and "the person without whom nothing I do would be possible". In July 2007, he said, "At the end of the day, my only real worry is Cécilia."
Political life
When her husband was a Minister, Cécilia Sarkozy had an office next to his, serving as his close adviser. In 2002, she was appointed to the Office of the Ministry of the Interior. In 2005 she was appointed Chief of Staff for the UMP Party.Presidential wife
Cécilia Sarkozy visited LibyaLibya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
twice in July 2007 to visit Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
and helped in securing the release of five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor
HIV trial in Libya
The HIV trial in Libya concerns the trials, appeals and eventual release of six foreign medical workers charged with conspiring to deliberately infect over 400 children with HIV in 1998, causing an epidemic at El-Fatih Children's Hospital in Benghazi, Libya.The defendants were a Palestinian...
who had all spent years on Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
's death row after allegedly being tortured into confessing to infecting Libyan babies with the HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
virus. The French left asked for Cécilia Sarkozy to be heard by the Parliamentary Commission expected to be created in October 2007 concerning the terms of the release of the six, as she had played an "important role" in their liberation according to Pierre Moscovici
Pierre Moscovici
Pierre Moscovici is a French politician, a member of the Departmental Council of Doubs and a Member of the French Parliament. He is a member of the French Socialist Party ; part of the Party of European Socialists...
(PS).
Divorce
In October 2007, several French, American, and British media outlets published rumors that the Sarkozys had separated and expected to announce their plans to divorce shortly.The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
and CNN.com reported on October 18, 2007, that a divorce announcement was imminent. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported that same day that the Élysée Palace had released a statement declaring that the Sarkozys “announce their separation by mutual consent.” Shortly afterwards, the palace corrected the separation announcement by stating that the Sarkozys had actually officially divorced.
On 19 October 2007, an interview with Cécilia Sarkozy was published on the front page of L'Est Républicain
L'Est Républicain
L'Est Républicain is a daily regional French newspaper based in Nancy. As of 2003, its daily circulation was 206,970....
, a regional French newspaper. In it, she admitted that she had run away with her lover, Richard Attias, in 2005 ("I met someone, I fell in love, I left") and that though she eventually returned to Sarkozy, they were unable to repair their marriage. "What happened to me has happened to millions of people: one day you no longer have your place in the couple. The couple is no longer the essential thing of your life. It no longer functions; it no longer works."
Cecilia Attias Foundation for Women
In October 2008, Cecilia Attias announced the launch of her Foundation for women's rights. The Cecilia Attias Foundation for Women actualizes concrete improvement in the lives of women worldwide by serving as a strategic, media, and financial platform for small and moderate sized, established non-governmental organizations, associations and foundations who champion the cause of women’s equality and well-being. Recently, Cecilia Attias delivered the keynote address at the ARISE Africa Fashion Awards entitled "The Promise of Africa."External links
- http://www.californiawomen.org/cecilia-maria-attias/
- Cecilia Attias Foundation for Women