Obama 'Looks Forward' to Meeting Hollande despite Split with Partner
President Barack Obama still "looks forward" to meeting next month with President Francois Hollande, the White House said Saturday after the French leader announced his split from partner Valerie Trierweiler.
Obama "looks forward to seeing President Hollande as planned" during his February 11 state visit, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden told Agence France Presse, without further comment.
Hollande, 59, told AFP on Saturday that he has split with Trierweiler, his longstanding partner, following his affair with an actress nearly 20 years his junior.
Saying he was speaking as a private individual, Hollande announced: "I wish to make it known that I have ended my partnership with Valerie Trierweiler."
Trierweiler, 48, remains holed up in a presidential residence in Versailles outside Paris after leaving hospital last Saturday, where she was treated for a bout of "tiredness" brought on by press revelations of Hollande's affair with 41-year-old actress Julie Gayet.
The question of whether Hollande will come to Washington with Gayet, Trierweiler or neither woman has been a matter of great speculation in Washington, where state visits by foreign dignitaries are carefully choreographed.
Source: Agence France Presse
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