The ex-wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy has branded him a “stingy philanderer” with a “behavioural problem” who is an “unworthy president” of France.

“There is a ridiculous side to him. He is not dignified. He is an unworthy president of the Republic. He has a behavioural problem,” the former first lady is quoted as saying of her ex-husband in a book, Cecilia, written by journalist Anna Biton.

As the Lyse palace soap opera descended to new depths of vitriol, Cecilia attacked the French president as “a man who likes no one, not even his children”.

Although President Sarkozy is expected to marry super model Bruni, Cecilia is unconvinced her ex-husband of eleven years has got over her. She also called the president’s other female friends “a bunch of slappers” and women ministers “boring wall flowers”.

Meanwhile, a Paris court on Friday rejected a bid Cecilia to block publication of the book.

The former first lady’s lawyers argued that the book violated her private life, and asked the court to ban it. The court threw out the complaint, ruling that a ban “'would be totally disproportionate, all the more so because the book is already on sale.”