French President Hollande Dumps His First Lady Valerie Trierweiler

French President Francois Hollande last night announced his  separation from Valerie Trierweiler – 15 days after he was caught cheating on her with an actress.

After a day of frenzied speculation, Mr Hollande announced: ‘I am making it known that I have put an end to my shared life with Valerie Trierweiler.’

Ms Trierweiler’s position has been considered untenable since Mr Hollande’s two-year affair with Julie Gayet, a 41-year-old actress, was exposed on January 10.

But the notoriously dithering socialist head of state continually claimed that it was all a ‘private matter’.

The announcement effectively ends Ms Trierweiler’s tenure as France’s First Lady. 

Her split from Mr Hollande also means she loses her office with five staff, and numerous other perks including chauffeur-driven limousines and homes across France.

Yesterday’s statement came as  48-year-old Ms Trierweiler set off on a ‘humanitarian’ visit to India, where she is expected to speak for the first time since the scandal broke.

Last night she tweeted her first reaction, writing: ‘All my gratitude goes to the extraordinary staff at the Elysee. I will never forget their devotion or emotion at the time of departure.’

Pointedly, she had refused to sign the separation agreement with Mr Hollande – insisting that she was prepared to forgive him and continue as First Lady, according to Elysee Palace aides.

‘This is the kind of problem which has held up a formal announcement of a separation,’ said one.

Ms Trierweiler is increasingly being viewed as a ‘loose cannon’ who may attempt to humiliate Mr Hollande for dumping her just  one-and-a-half years into his term of office. 

Mr Hollande, who has never married, is now set to concentrate on his relationship with Ms Gayet. On January 10, photographs appeared in Closer magazine showing Hollande sneaking in and out of their Paris love nest, trying to disguise his identity with a crash helmet.

The notoriously volatile Ms Trierweiler, who is twice divorced, first flew into a rage and then checked herself into a Paris hospital for eight days, suffering from emotional shock.

She is said to have thrown valuable Elysee Palace property at Mr Hollande, although claims that she caused £2.5 million worth of damage to antiques, including a vase dating back to the reign of Louis XVI, have been denied.

The announcement came as a new opinion poll confirmed that Ms Trierweiler was by far the most unpopular First Lady in the recent history of France.

Just eight per cent of respondents to the survey for the Parisien newspaper backed Ms Trierweiler, a journalist for magazine Paris Match, as a popular First Lady.

After checking out of hospital, Ms Trierweiler raised eyebrows by moving into La Lanterne, one of the most luxurious presidential palaces in France, inviting her mother and other family members to stay with her.

Situated in Versailles, west of Paris, it comes complete with a heated swimming  pool and one of the best stocked wine cellars in  the country.

This caused huge embarrassment to Mr Hollande, a socialist who claims to ‘dislike the rich’ but who has been blamed for his country’s spiralling unemployment rate and cost of living.

Up until today, Ms Trierweiler had been desperate to salvage her relationship with Mr Hollande, telling friends she ‘forgave him’ and wanted to get back to work.

She was particularly keen to accompany Mr Hollande on a trip to America in February, when the couple were due to stay with the Obamas at the White House.

Meanwhile, the delighted Ms Gayet is already said to have held a party for close friends and family to celebrate her  relationship with Mr Hollande being made public.

A photograph of the smiling actress, who has appeared in more than 50 French films, is splashed across the cover of the latest edition of Paris Match. In the picture, she is seen walking close to her parents’ country estate in south-west France.

The picture will infuriate her love rival – Ms Trierweiler has been a staff writer on Paris Match for more than 20 years, even holding on to  the job when she became First Lady in 2012.

Both women have used the media constantly to bolster their careers, and their strong links with France’s most intrusive popular magazines has been another cause of embarrassment for Mr Hollande.

Earlier this week, his advisers said he should remain a ‘bachelor president’ to avoid further scandal.

On Friday he went to visit the Pope in Rome, but refused to comment publicly about his colourful private life.

Ms Trierweiler’s trip to Mumbai was organised by French aid agency Action Against Hunger while she was still First Lady.

She will be accompanied by the actress Charlotte Valandrey. They are due to visit a slum and attend a gala charity dinner at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel on Sunday.

Many in France believe Ms Trierweiler is unwise to carry on with the visit, not just because she has just checked out of hospital, but because she no longer represents France on the world stage