Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, 50, married Richard Attias, 48, on Sunday, less than two months after Sarkozy married singer and former model Carla Bruni in Paris.
“Three marriages and a year of erring,” was the headline in France’s Liberation newspaper. “Knowing perfectly well that this is information which interests no one, let’s remark that this weekend in New York, Cecilia Isabel Ciganer-Albeniz married Richard Attias,” the opening paragraph read.
The wedding took place in the elegant Rainbow Room of the Rockefeller Centre and that the 150 guests had been asked to come without cameras or portable phones.
Cecilia left Paris with Attias on Tuesday for a full schedule of wedding events, starting with a party at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Friday.
The couple and many of their guests dined out in Manhattan on Saturday and took in the hit Broadway musical “Mamma Mia”, which is set to the music of the pop group Abba.
It was Cecilia’s third marriage. Her marriage in 1996 with Sarkozy, with whom she has an 11-year-old son Louis, ran into a crisis when he was interior minister and she stayed for a time with Attias. Cecilia returned in a well-publicised reconciliation and later started off her stint as France’s first lady with an unconventional approach. On October 15, the couple separated.
Attias, a Frenchman born in Morocco, works for Publicis as an events organiser. The couple is set to move back to Neuilly.