PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday married Italian former supermodel Carla Bruni after a whirlwind romance and less than four months after divorcing his second wife. The 53-year-old president and Bruni, 40, held a low key wedding at the Elysee Palace attended by about 20 relatives and close friends, according to the local mayor who carried out the ceremony. But Sarkozy had to break off from the wedding day celebrations to attend two emergency meetings on the crisis in Chad, a former French colony, where rebel forces have surrounded the presidential palace. The French presidency only confirmed the wedding after it took place - just as Sarkozy said was likely to happen. The couple "announced that they were married this morning in the presence of their families in the strictest privacy, the Elysee Palace said in a statement. "It lasted the usual 20 minutes or so, said Francois Lebel, mayor of the eighth arrondissement of Paris. "The bride wore white. She was ravishing, as usual. The bridegroom didn't look bad, either. The couple were "emotional and amorous, he added. "There was an exchange of vows and the traditional kiss. Nothing exceptional. Sarkozy and Bruni reportedly met at a dinner party only a few weeks after his divorce from Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz. They couple spent Christmas in Luxor and then came to Egypt visiting the Pyramids and causing a media frenzy. ordan.
