NINE years after the death of François Mitterrand, his illegitimate daughter is to lift the veil on her discreet upbringing, portraying the reputedly aloof French president known as “the Sphinx” as a loving father who, despite his official and family commitments, telephoned her several times a day and put her to bed as often as he could.

Mazarine Pingeot, 30, the daughter of Mitterrand’s mistress, Anne Pingeot, will next month publish Bouche Cousue (Not a Word), an account of the years she spent as one of France’s most closely guarded secrets. They proved a heavy burden on her childhood and later prompted her to seek psychoanalysis.

Only at the end of Mitterrand’s 14-year presidency was her existence disclosed. On the day he was buried after his death from prostate cancer in January 1996, Mazarine became a public figure as she stood before her father’s coffin next to her mother, a museum curator, and Mitterrand’s widow, Danielle.

In his will, Mitterrand entrusted Mazarine with safeguarding his “spiritual legacy” and she has since become a novelist and lecturer. “The book is first and foremost extremely literary. It’s in the form of a diary — very personal, and very intimate, but there is nothing sensationalist about it,” said Betty Mialet, Pingeot’s editor at the Julliard publishing house.

“Mazarine felt she had very few memories of her childhood because she was virtually kept hidden. So she started to write just for herself, to preserve what she could remember. Today she has decided to publish because she wants to put the label ‘the daughter of . . .’ behind her and have her writing judged on its own merits.”

Mitterrand is described as devoted to his daughter, taking a close interest in her upbringing and calling at her home whenever possible in the evenings. He was always anxious to find out where she was.

“Mitterrand controlled more or less everything about his daughter, but in an affectionate way. Apparently she was the centre of his life, and that’s surprising given his duties as president and the fact he lived with his other family,” Mialet said.

Mazarine and her mother spent much of her childhood in a flat on the Quai Branly beside the Seine. She apparently loathed the “impersonal character” of the flat; she also lived for a time in a wing of the Elysée palace.

The publicity blurb for the book says it blends “the magical, banal and cruel moments of a childhood unlike any other”. A print run of 200,000 copies is planned; Mazarine’s first book, a novel published seven years ago, sold 60,000 copies but a second novel sold just 12,000.

A source close to Danielle Mitterrand said she had not read the book. “Danielle never comments about her private life and this book will be no exception,” the source said.

Their son Jean-Christophe has said the affair with Mazarine’s mother was no secret within the family. “You can imagine how (Danielle) felt, but we never saw them have any rows. Their love was strong and survived everything.”

Jack Lang, a former culture minister and one of Mitterrand’s closest associates, saw nothing wrong with disclosing details the president fought to conceal during his lifetime.

“If the book is good, I don’t see why Mazarine shouldn’t publish. People are still fascinated by Mitterrand — I call it the Mitterrand magic,” Lang said. “Both his friends and his enemies miss him. And after all the attacks in his last years and after his death, this kind of memoir can pull him out of what we could call purgatory.”

Previous glimpses that Mazarine has offered of her childhood have painted a different picture. Two years ago she told the magazine Psychologie that her childhood scars drove her to seek therapy.

“When we were walking with my father in the street or when we were dining in a restaurant, he was happy, and I was absolutely terrified,” she recalled. “I was always afraid of meeting people who knew me. My parents received friends at home so we were not a trio cut off from the world. But I was always conscious that no one must know.”

Next month another taboo will be shattered with the release of a film about Mitterrand’s last months. Called Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars, it is based on a successful book by Georges-Marc Benamou, which related conversations with the dying president.

Mitterrand’s entourage has labelled that book “obscene”. Mazarine’s affectionate tome should at least help to reassert her father’s dignity.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge