Carla Bruni has opened up about her body image battle following the birth of her daughter Giulia in 2011.
The former French First Lady, 45, put on 18kg while pregnant with her second child, and says the extra weight caused her self-esteem to plummet.
“I’m kind of tall, with good size shoulders, and when I am 40 pounds overweight, I don’t even look fat — I just look ugly,” Carla, a former catwalk model, told the new issue of Vanity Fair.
“Having children when you’re older is not easy.”
Carla described her pregnancy and the months immediately postpartum as “a very fragile moment” in her life.
Giulia was born in October 2011 when Carla’s husband Nicolas Sarkozy was gearing up for another Presidential campaign.
Carla found it incredibly hard to lose weight while being a good wife and mother, and when Nicolas lost the election to Francois Hollande she says she wondered if she should just “just stay fat and buy new pants”.
“It’s very hard to diet, being exhausted,” she said. “Being so tired and depressed, I didn’t even care about my hair and make-up.”
Carla eventually got her pre-baby body back and says she and Nicolas couldn’t be happier with their new little daughter.
“She is so Sarkozy,” she said. “Nicolas has found his master. I think between our age and the fact that she’s a girl, we’re both melting, basically, you know?”
Carla also has son Aurelien, 11, from a previous relationship.
