French President Francois Hollande Splits with First Lady

French president Francois Hollande, announced his separation from Valerie Trierweiler, France's first lady, two weeks after magazine exposed Hollande's affair with film actress, Al Jazeera reports.

Hollande, 59, sought to put an end to turbulence following a report published by Closer, a celebrity magazine that he was having an affair with Julie Gayet, a film actress and a Socialist Party supporter.

"I wish to make it known that I have ended my partnership with Valerie Trierweiler," Hollande said on Saturday.

Announcing the separation, Hollande said he was speaking as an individual and not as head of state since it concerned his private life.

In her first public statement, Trierweiler, 48, thanked the staff of the Elysee presidential palace in a statement on Twitter.

"I will never forget their devotion, nor the emotion at the time of my departure," she said.

Trierweiler was expected to travel to India on Sunday in honour of an anti-hunger charity, and French media reports said she may speak at a news conference there.