MUMBAI - Valerie Trierweiler, the ex-partner of French President Francois Hollande, arrived in India on Jan.27 on a charity mission despite an announcement two days earlier that the couple have split. Trierweiler will promote a French charity in her first public appearance since it emerged that Hollande was having an affair with a French actress. She arrived at Mumbai international airport on an Air France flight just after
midnight from Paris for the mission organised by Action Against Hunger (Action Contre la Faim, ACF), despite no longer being France's first lady. Trierweiler, wearing a navy coat, did not speak with some 50 media gathered, and instead walked from the terminal building to a waiting car. Her entourage said she was accompanied on her India trip by a presidential bodyguard. A source close to her said: "She is on good terms with the president and she is better."
Hollande, 59, has split with longstanding partner Trierweiler, 48, after press revelations of his affair with 41-year-old actress Julie Gayet. Trierweiler was hospitalised for a week after news broke of Hollande's involvement with Gayet, and she had since then been holed up in a presidential retreat outside Paris.
Trierweiler, who was treated in hospital for a bout of "tiredness" brought on by the scandal, had been invited to India in her official capacity.
The charity is paying for the long-planned trip, which is financed mostly by private Indian partners.
Trierweiler visited India in February last year when, accompanied by the president, she visited a shelter for street children in New Delhi and spoke of her desire to become a champion of children's rights.
India at the time decided to treat Trierweiler as if she were Hollande's wife, resolving a potential protocol headache in the conservative country.
Hollande, 59, has split with longstanding partner Trierweiler, 48, after press revelations of his affair with 41-year-old actress Julie Gayet. Trierweiler was hospitalised for a week after news broke of Hollande's involvement with Gayet, and she had since then been holed up in a presidential retreat outside Paris.
Trierweiler, who was treated in hospital for a bout of "tiredness" brought on by the scandal, had been invited to India in her official capacity.
The charity is paying for the long-planned trip, which is financed mostly by private Indian partners.
Trierweiler visited India in February last year when, accompanied by the president, she visited a shelter for street children in New Delhi and spoke of her desire to become a champion of children's rights.
India at the time decided to treat Trierweiler as if she were Hollande's wife, resolving a potential protocol headache in the conservative country.
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