Trierweiler 'spirited' to India after Hollande confirms split

VALERIE TRIERWEILER, the former French first lady, has been "spirited" out of France after being dumped by President Francois Hollande.

She arrived in Mumbai in India after Hollande announced their split on Saturday evening, following revelations about his long-running an affair with French actress Julie Gayet.

Trierweiler is visiting a Mumbai hospital and attending a charity dinner, but her schedule looks likely to be rearranged to "spare her the embarrassment of facing reporters".

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She had apparently wanted a dignified exit, says the Daily Telegraph, but it was "anything but" as she was "spirited out of France in a manner more befitting a fugitive than a former first lady, even a freshly jilted one".

Trierweiler was taken all the way to the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport by limousine and motorcycle police escort, and then arrived at Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace hotel just after 1am on Sunday in another convoy of black limousines with two police jeeps for security.

Before her departure, one former French cabinet minister compared her to the late Princess Diana, who was famously pictured in front of the Taj Mahal during her own marital difficulties with Prince Charles.

Trierweiler's trip to Mumbai, which was planned months ago, is likely to be her "swansong as first lady", says The Times. The state bodyguard who has travelled with her to India will quit her service next week and she will be removed from the presidency's website.

Strictly speaking, Trierweiler was never actually first lady as she and Hollande never married. She is now in an unprecedented position of being a "first significant other" of a French president to be jilted in office.

Hollande has apparently agreed to continue paying the rent for the flat in Paris that they once shared while she looks for somewhere else. She may also be entitled to claim compensation for the humiliation and loss of earnings that she suffered because of him.

Sources in the president's office say that he has no intention of installing his latest mistress, actress Julie Gayet, as first lady. He apparently told advisers this weekend: "These women will have cost me dear."