Valérie Trierweiler, the partner of French President François Hollande, today described her difficulties in adjusting to a new role as France's "first girlfriend", saying that it was like doing a parachute jump "without a parachute", reports The Independent.
Ms Trierweiler, in an interview with Le Monde, took the first step of a PR makeover, acknowledging that she had been in denial about her change in circumstances since Mr Hollande won the presidency. She worked as a political journalist for the weekly magazine Paris-Match for 20 years and initially believed that she would continue as an "observer". But she now accepts that she is a player, a "public person", as she calls it, and that her initial reaction had been "an unconscious rejection of the role".
She has only entered Mr Hollande's office in the Elysée Palace three times since May, she says.
Ms Trierweiler, 47, has had an uncomfortable few months and negative media coverage. Last June, she fired off a tweet in support of the politician competing against her love-rival, Ségolène Royal, the former partner of Mr Hollande and the mother of their four children.
More recently, she let it be known that she would be a witness at the marriage of gay friends, once legislation permitting same-sex marriage is approved. And she agreed to pass on a letter to Mr Hollande from protesters opposed to government plans for a new airport outside Nantes. Asked about the political nature of her actions, Ms Trierweiler responded: "One learns."
Read more of this report in The Independent.