Carla Bruni biography

Synopsis

Profile

Singer, model, and wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Born Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi on December 23, 1967, in Turin, Italy. First famous for her modeling and singing career, Carla Bruni has become one of the world's most watched women as the first lady of France. She grew up with her sister and brother in a wealthy Italian family.

While the family fortune was made in tires and industrial products, both of her parents were more musically inclined than business oriented. Her legal father, Alberto Bruni Tedeschi, was a composer, and her mother, Marisa, was a concert pianist. Years later, Bruni learned that her biological father was Maurizio Remmert, a musician and grocery store chain owner. She too showed an interest in music early on, teaching herself how to play guitar.

In the mid-1970s, Bruni and her family moved to France. She attended boarding school in Switzerland and then moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. Interested in art and architecture, Bruni soon abandoned college for a modeling career in the late 1980s. She appeared in countless ads, including an international campaign for Guess? jeans, and walked runways for such high-end fashion houses as Dior and Chanel. Bruni was also a favorite for fashion editorial work, appearing on more than 200 magazine covers.

As a top model, Bruni enjoyed a jet-set lifestyle. She traveled in elite social circles and dated some of the world's most famous men. For several years, Bruni had a relationship with Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger. She also reportedly dated rocker Eric Clapton and businessman Donald Trump. In the late 1990s, Bruni retired from modeling to focus on her music. She had been playing guitar for years and started taking singing lessons. Writing songs, Bruni penned six tracks for French singer Julien Clerc. She soon released her first album, Quelqu'un M'a Dit (which translates as Someone Told Me) in 2003. The recording became a surprise hit, selling more than a million copies.

Before launching her singing career, Bruni had been caught in a public scandal. She had become involved with Raphaël Enthoven, a philosophy professor. Enthoven was much younger than her and married at the time the two started their relationship. Enthoven's ex-wife, Justine Lévy, daughter of famous French intellectual, Bernard-Henri Lévy, later wrote a thinly veiled novel about the end of her marriage and Bruni's role in its demise. Bruni and Enthoven had a child together, a son named Aurélien, in 2001.