Supermodel Carla Bruni, then and now

She started out as a top model in the 1990s. Now in her fifties, she has a modeling career behind her, a music career in full swing, and a personal headache with the legal problems of her husband. Let's revisit the rollercoaster that is Carla Bruni's life story.

The story of Carla Gilberta Bruni-Tedeschi begins on 23 December 1967 in Turin, where she was born and raised until 1975. In that year she and her family emigrated to France. They fled the violent political climate of the so-called "lead years" with the Italian Red Brigades in full swing.

Daughter of actress and pianist Marisa Borini and businessman and former opera composer Alberto Bruni Tedeschi (although later it became clear her biological father was actually the businessman Maurizio Remmert), Carla Bruni grew up surrounded by books and music. From a very young age, she was interested in artistic disciplines. In the mid-80s, she broke with art and academics, however, to become a model.

At age 19, Carla Bruni made a name for herself in golden letters. She was a star and all the designers wanted her to be their collections' ambassador. As one of the top models of the late 80s and early 90s, Carla Bruni traveled a thousand and one catwalks around the planet. She was one of the muses of her great friend Yves Saint Laurent.

"My time as a model taught me how important superficiality is," Carla Bruni recalled in 'El País'. "I believe very much in what Karl Lagerfeld said: 'Fashion is neither moral nor amoral. It serves to rebuild morale.'" Bruni continued, somewhat philosophically: "In my opinion, going out to buy a dress is pure happiness. It is kind of an antidote to death, to the sadness of life and its absurdity."

In less than a decade, Carla Bruni became a star inside and outside of France. She began acting in films like Richard Leacock's 'Catwalk' and Alain Berberian's 'Paparazzi'. More successful, however, would be her pop music rather than her acting.

When she was 30, Bruni recorded her first album: 'Si j'étais elle' ('If I were her'). It sold over 250,000 copies, and Carla Bruni seriously considered continuing her career in music. In 2002, she surpassed the success of her first album with 'Quelqu'un m'a dit' ('Someone told me'). An acoustic album on which Carla Bruni was accompanied by a guitar only, it sold over 2 million records worldwide.

By then, Carla Bruni was already a celebrity and the media followed her closely. They speculated about the model's romances with Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, and Kevin Costner. (In the image, Carla Bruni appears with the Swiss actor Vincent Perez, one of her past romances.)

Sometimes she was entangled in a triangle, for example when she dated publisher Jean-Paul Enthoven and fell in love with his son, Raphaël Enthoven. She would end up marrying the son, who was a philosopher and writer. With Raphaël Enthoven, Carla Bruny had a son in 2001: Aurélien.

Besides her relationship controversies, Carla Bruni continued to draw attention in the mid-2000s with albums and concerts. Her star gradually began to fade, though. She remained a celebrity in France, but her records no longer topped the charts.

Still, Carla Bruni was famous enough to carry the Italian flag at the 2006 Turin Olympics. She wore a sparkling-white Georgio Armani gown for that momentous occasion.

In 2007, when some people began to consider Carla Bruni passé in showbiz, she resurfaced with a vengeance. In November of that year, the singer started seeing the president of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy. They quickly became one of the most fashionable couples in France and the world.

Bruni and Sarkozy had met at a dinner hosted by a mutual friend. For the President, this romance came quickly after his divorce from Cecilia Ciganer Albéniz, the mother of his son Louis, in 2007. For Carla Bruni, love appeared some time after she broke up with the father of her son Aurélien, the writer Raphaël Enthoven.

The media speculated that their romance was somewhat "arranged," possibly to boost the popularity of  both Bruni and Sarkozy. They assumed that the relationship would have an "early expiration date."

Sarkozy and Bruni were first seen together on a trip to Egypt in the 2007 Christmas holidays. From that moment, their faces dominated the media. All smiles and confidence, they seemed to be serious about their love.

So much so that, only a few months later, Carli Bruni and President Sarkozy got married with a secret ceremony in the Parisian Elysée Palace. It was a sensation in the media.

Overnight, Carla Bruni became the First Lady of France. She put her professional career on hold and devoted herself fully to that new role.

However, her new status as wife of the French President did not change her life. "My time as First Lady," she recalled in 2017 in El País, "taught me the same thing as the rest of my life. It did not change anything. The only thing that radically altered my life was having children. It is something that interferes much more than politics."

The experience of motherhood came once again for Carla Bruni when she and Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed a baby in 2011. On 19 October of that year little Giulia was born, the singer's second child and the fourth of Sarkozy.

These were years of great public exposure for Carla Bruni. Dinners, receptions, meetings with personalities and high officials on an international level: the life of the ex-model and singer had changed completely. Then, however, when nobody expected it anymore, she went back on stage.

In 2011 Bruni accepted a small role in the film 'Midnight in Paris', directed by Woody Allen and starring Owen Wilson. The movie won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 2012.

In addition, Bruni had some musical collaborations and launched her fourth album around that time: 'Comme si de rien n'était' ('As if nothing had happened'). It was a first in the history of First Ladies in France.

The days of happiness at the Élysée Palace ended in May 2012 when Nicolas Sarkozy was defeated by his political opponent François Hollande. Difficult years began for the couple.

In addition to his political decline, Sarkozy faced several accusations of corruption and other offences involving the alleged illegal financing of his election campaign. It left Bruni with a husband in low spirits.

When asked about her husband by El País in 2017, Carla Bruni had only good things to say: "He has the same strength and vigor. He is a fighter, an example of resistance, of strength, and also of softness. He is very intelligent and wise but, come on, I am madly in love with him, so I am not very objective."

Carla Bruni continues to support her husband now that he is convicted for corruption charges and sentenced to go to jail. "I support my man," she already said in December 2020 while accompanying Sarkozy to his first trial hearing.

Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to three years in prison, two of them suspended. After his first failed appeal to the sentence, in early 2024, the case is now going to the Supreme Court. While it might take a long time before the former president actually serves his year in jail, it must have been a tough blow for Carla Bruni Sarkozy and her husband.

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