Read Charles Bremner's blog on the divorce

The saga of President Sarkozy’s turbulent marriage to Cécilia, his reluctant First Lady, took an abrupt turn yesterday when they announced that they had already divorced.

After months of rumours and a week of media fever, the Elysée Palace said that the couple, who had been together for 23 years and married for 11, had completed proceedings before a judge. “They settled everything by mutual agreement,” Michèle Cahan, their lawyer, said. “Everything went very well, without the least difficulty.”

The Sarkozys’ ten-year-old son, Louis, will live with Mrs Sarkozy but is to keep very close contact with his father, Ms Cahan said.

Hours before their split was confirmed, Mrs Sarkozy, 49, staged an extraordinary stunt, appearing in glamorous photographs in Paris Match magazine. The pictures, taken at her request in a Paris hotel, fed a view that the rebellious socialite was intent on displaying her independence from the husband who was desperate for her to stay. Some opposition politicians also charged Mr Sarkozy, 52, with timing the news of his divorce to distract attention from a national transport strike against his administration by public sector workers. Some suggested that he had fooled France by reuniting with his wife last year after an earlier separation merely to win the election.

Mr Sarkozy’s office broke a long news blackout by saying: “Cécilia and Nicolas Sarkozy have announced their separation by mutual consent. They will not be making any comment.” With more details emerging, it later confirmed the divorce. Mr Sarkozy is the first French head of state to end his marriage in office since Napoléon Bonaparte ejected the Empress Joséphine in 1809.

Friends said that Mr Sarkozy had resigned himself to the departure of the woman without whom he said in 2006 he could not imagine living. Patrick Balkany, a politician friend who has spoken for the couple in the past, said: “She did not want to take part in the life of the President any more. It was unavoidable.”

Mr Sarkozy, who dined with Tony Blair in Paris on Wednesday night, was in good spirits, he added.

The Sarkozys, who each have two adult children by previous marriages, appeared before a judge on Monday, according to reliable sources. The divorce will be finalised in six weeks, Le Monde newspaper said. Mr Sarkozy delayed word of the separation in the hope that his wife, who had left him before, would change her mind, it added. Le Monde also said that the couple had drafted a divorce agreement at Mrs Sarkozy’s request during the election campaign last spring.

Reports of such an accord circulated in Paris last year after Mrs Sarkozy reappeared after a ten-month affair with an events organiser. Mr Sarkozy had set up home with Anne Fulda, a journalist for Le Figaro, the national daily, for a time during her absence.

Suspicion over the 2006 reconciliation of the Sarkozys was voiced yesterday by Claude Bartolone, a senior Socialist: “During the campaign they announced that they couldn’t live without one another,” he said. “Now we are back to real life and a good number of people are going to have the feeling that they were taken for a ride during the campaign.”

Mrs Sarkozy, who had long served as her husband’s chief adviser, rarely appeared during the campaign and did not vote. Then, her appearance with the children at his inauguration in May quelled speculation. Talk of a French Kennedy-style First Family returned in July when Mrs Sarkozy flew to Libya as her husband’s envoy to bring home imprisoned nurses. However, Mrs Sarkozy’s evident unhappiness and her husband’s efforts to win her favour became the human sub-plot of the “Super-Sarko” presidency.

While speculation raged she has been highly visible in recent days in Paris, dining in restaurants and shopping in expensive districts. Her photo-shoot for Paris Match seemed to be part of her strategy of asserting herself. The magazine, owned by Arnaud Lagardère, one of Mr Sarkozy’s tycoon friends, said that Mrs Sarkozy had approached it saying that she wanted to “update her image”. She chose as photographer Philippe Warrin, who took Mr Sarkozy’s official portrait last May.

Affairs of the state

— In 1988 the Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, 70, caused a scandal when he attended a conference with an airline hostess Dimitra Liani, 34, despite being married. He went on to marry her but she embarrassed him again when photographed topless, apparently being caressed by another woman.

— Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan President, is twice-divorced. His second wife publicly demanded a divorce in 2003, claiming he was married to “the Bolivarian revolution”.

— Carlos Menem, President of Argentina in the 1990s, divorced his wife Zulema in 1992. He once ordered her to be locked out of the presidential palace.

— The Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, 51, lives with his mistress Lucie Talmanova, 39.

Source: Agencies, Times archive

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