Speculation is rife that Carla Bruni may be pregnant after a holiday photograph showing hubby French president Nicolas Sarkozy protectively patting the 41- year-old former Italian supermodel's belly has emerged.
Bruni, a mother of one, has made no secret of the fact that she is longing to have a baby with her 54-year-old husband who has three children from two previous wedlocks.
The couple have just returned to Paris from a relaxing three week holiday on the French Riviera, following Sarkozy's collapse last month while out jogging. And, the photograph of them in swimming costumes have only revived pregnancy rumours, leading British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported.
In fact, in an interview shortly after the couple married last year, when rumours were swirling that she was already expecting a child, Bruni expressed fears that her age might make it difficult for her to conceive.
"I'm not pregnant and I regret it because I love it when I am. Will it happen? It's difficult for me to say. It's much more difficult at 40 than it is at 25," she had said.
However, the Élysée Palace has refused to comment on the latest claims that Bruni is pregnant.
Sarkozy has three sons -- Pierre, 24, and Jean, 22, from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli, whom he divorced in 1996; and 12-year-old son, Louis, from his second marriage to Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz, whom he divorced in 2007.
Bruni has an eight-year-old son, Aurelian, from her relationship with Raphael Enthoven, the philosophy professor. She met Sarkozy at a dinner party in Paris in November 2007, and they married three months later in February 2008.
