BERLIN - AFP
The wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is expecting a child, the president's father told Tuesday's edition of the German Bild newspaper. "I'm glad to be having a grandchild," Pal Sarkozy, 82, told Europe's most widely-read newspaper. Neither the president nor his wife "want to know the sex the child, but I'm sure it's a girl who'll be as beautiful as Carla," he added. A cryptic television interview by France's 43-year-old first lady on Monday had fuelled speculation she was pregnant. Journalists had widely expected Bruni to announce she was pregnant when she scheduled a live interview on the top lunchtime news show on France's TF1 channel, but she tantalisingly avoided confirming it openly. Instead of asking the million-dollar question, presenter Jean-Pierre Pernaut quizzed Bruni for several minutes on her charity work against child illiteracy, before dispatching the pregnancy issue in a matter of seconds. "I know you don't like people talking about your private life, but I just want to congratulate you," Pernaut said. The supermodel-turned-singer Bruni smiled shyly and replied: "I congratulate you too," without saying what for. The interview then ended.