She portrayed him as a cold, cruel and calculating man whose cheating drove her to swallow a large dose of sleeping tablets, reports The Guardian.
However, the accusation that hurt French president François Hollande the most in his former partner Valerie Trierweiler's kiss-and-tell book is her claim that he despises the poor and calls them the "sans dents" (toothless).
In an exclusive interview with Le Nouvel Observateur to be published on Thursday, Hollande addresses the term, already set to become a leitmotif of his beleaguered administration.
"I felt this attack on the poor, the dispossessed, as if it were a blow to my whole life," Hollande says. "In all the posts I have held, I have only thought of helping, representing those who suffer. I have never been on the side of the powerful, even if I'm not their enemy, but I know where I come from."
He adds: "You think I have forgotten from where I come? My maternal grandfather, a Savoyard tailor, lived with his family in a simple two-room flat in Paris. My paternal grandfather, a teacher, came from a poor rural family from northern France. And you think that I could despise the background in which I have my roots, that is my reason for being here.
"Yes, I have met people in difficult circumstances, ground down by life. They cannot afford to look after their teeth. It's a sign of the worst misery. These people, I have been among, I have helped them and supported them."
Read more of this report from The Guardian.