Sex by numbers.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and French President Nicholas Sarkozy

Let’s play pretend. Ready? You’re a supermodel in the nineties, back when the word actually meant something. You are truly, genuinely super, one of fewer than ten supermodels in the world. Your peers are Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, Stephanie Seymour, Helena Christensen and Elle Macpherson.
You began modeling when you were 19 and quickly landed campaigns for Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent, Chanel and Versace. You work and play hard with the biggest names in the fashion, film and music industries. Life is good. You are the hotness.
You walk kilometres in tricky shoes down the catwalks of Milan, Paris, New York and London and by the mid nineties, you’ve starred on 250 magazine covers. It’s an endless, global party and you earn $7.5 million a year for turning up.
For two decades, famous men are desperate to sleep with you. Some succeed. Eric Clapton writes in his memoirs about falling madly in love with you and how he begged Mick Jagger not to steal you. Mick does anyway and is your on-off lover for years.

 

Meanwhile, you have other romances and revel in your freedom, telling one reporter “I bore myself silly with monogamy. I prefer polygamy and polyandry.”
Maybe you’re joking. Possibly you aren’t.  Gradually, pop culture and the fashion industry move on from the supermodel phenomenon and it’s time to find other things to do.
In 1997 you quit modeling to pursue music and release several acclaimed albums over the next decade. You fall in love with a philosophy professor eight years your junior and have a son with him. That relationship ends. You turn 40.
OK. Time for a question. Quick: how many lovers have you had? Take an informed guess. What would be a fair number, given the extraordinary life you’ve led, the extraordinary men who’ve pursued you, the fact you were unmarried?
Oh, by the way, your name is Carla Bruni and nine months ago you did get married – to the President of France. So come on, how many?
This is the storm that has recently blown up around the French first lady and she’s handled it with as much style as she has her wardrobe since marrying Nicholas Sarkozy.
At least Carla knew it was coming. The controversy was triggered by a song she wrote on her new album that mentioned “my 30 lovers”. She insists the reference was poetic not autobiographical. Her true number is closer to half that, she says, wryly noting she’s never written up an official list.

“It’s not that I had a lot of lovers,” she told Vanity Fair this month. “It’s that I never hide them. It’s a different thing. I have not one day of regret.”

I love Europe. It’s kinda hard to imagine Therese Rein saying something similar in the Women’s Weekly, isn’t it?

But such candor wasn’t enough. More information please, demanded the media. We want details! Cue an interview on US current affairs program, 20/20 (which you can find on Youtube – I recommend it, it’s heaven).
“I never counted my lovers,” she repeated to Barbara Walters, laughing, when she primly enquired how many men Carla had actually slept with and demanded to know why she’d sung 30 if that wasn’t her official number. “Twenty lovers doesn’t sound good,” Carla replied in her sexy voice, without a hint of defensiveness. “Ten lovers doesn’t sound good - I mean phonetically, for my song.”
This baffled me briefly because ‘twenty’ and ‘thirty’ sound phonetically similar. Then I remembered her songs are in French. Duh.

“I was 40 years old when I met my husband,” she elaborated. “I was not a girl of 19. I have a past and I don’t think it’s shocking. I think it would be shocking for me to pretend not to have a past.”

Too true. Still, it’s rare for any woman to admit her number of sexual partners, even in ballpark terms. In fact there’s little honesty from either gender on this subject - for (different) reasons of judgement. If pressed, it’s fairly safe to assume a man will inflate his total by 50% and a woman will deflate hers by the same amount.

So is ‘about 15’ a lot or a little for a former supermodel at 40? I’m thinking it’s modest, given the corresponding number of partners a hot, famous unmarried man would have accumulated by the same age. George Clooney, hello?

When I wrote about Carla’s number on my blog recently, the comments exploded.  “I’m in my early twenties, not a supermodel and halfway to Bruni status” said N.
“I keep getting the same number, 8, but can't help thinking there must be some I've forgotten about, mainly because they were errrrrr forgettable” wrote C.
“I'm 32 and have only slept with my husband. Best decision ever,” said L.  “Think about it - say she started at 18. That's one every 16 months til she's 40.” said J.
When you put it like that….Anyway, apart from her sexual history (is anyone asking the President for his number?) the new First Lady of France also had another issue. When things started to get serious with Sarkozy, she decided to show him the nude fashion pictures she’d posed for during her career that were now on the internet. “You must know that this is going to come out,” she warned him. His response? “Oh, I like THIS one! Can I have a print of it?” Vive la France.

Comments

[Rosie]

Who the Hell cares? It's personal. Her husband doesn't care, and it's no-one else's business.

[Eliza]

Mia - there are rumours you've given birth to a baby boy (see comments on Hugh Hefner post) - can you please confirm or deny, please?

[Isabella]

Eliza - it was in the Sun Herald that Mia had a baby boy this week. Congrats to Mia and family!

[Eliza]

I think Mia owes it to us to announce it on here!

[Sarah]

I don't think she really owes any of us anything, Eliza...

[Heléna]

I think she's a beautiful woman! - more power to her!
I wonder if it will last :p

[s]

i don't get how the posts have been coming up if the baby was born this week, but i'm thrilled anyway. super super congratulations, Mia! the sleep deprivation begins... :) can't wait to hear his name! :)

[Tara]

Haha; hilarious, Eliza. Mia gives birth and the very first thing she does, before she tells friends or family, is to jump on her her blog and post, because she "owes" to her readers.

Parallel universe, anyone?

Huge congrats, Mia and family, on your new baby boy!

[gigdiary]

Congratulations, Mia and family, on your new baby boy!

Heart-felt best wishes, Mia

[gigdiary]

I'd like to think Eliza was being joyous, not demanding...
anyhow, let the baby talk begin! Reckon I should get out of here for a while......

[Eliza]

Thanks gigdiary!

I just meant that it would be nice of Mia to tell her loyal readers as we've obviously been waiting to hear the news!

And clearly she has found time to post since the birth; so she could post the news...

[gigdiary]

Eliza, Mia's posts from last week and so forth are 'pre-scheduled' posts. She alluded to this last week. Blogs let you set a 'post' date. So I think that Mia has looked after her blog, and her blog people, in preparation for the event.

I was surprised she'd bother, heck, leave her alone. Is there a Mia blog paparazzi in existence ? Guess most of us are a bit guilty. Guilty, but caring.....

and I still think, Eliza, your comment was joyous, not 'gnarly'....

(yes, I know I said I'd leave the building, but this was pre-baby stuff. Best I let you all get on with it...)

[melanie]

Congratulations to you and your family, Mia!

As for this topic, I wish we were as progressive in our attitudes to sex as the French! I don't mean being promiscious as progressive, but that we shouldn't be batting an eyelid if a 40-odd year old woman has a past!

It's funny how we are still kind of like school kids going all wide-eyed and whispery and saying "Oooohhhhh - she's done IT!" lol!

[melanie]

Before you say anything...PROMISCUOUS, not promiscious!

[gigdiary]

yes, melanie, oh that we could be as open in our attitudes towards sex as the French. As a young teenage boy it was the opposite, "Ooooohh, how can I make them think I've done IT!"

Believe me girls, it was peer pressure beyond peer pressure, when all you wanted was to hold your girl's hand at the movies....

PS, I thought promiscuous did have an 'i' in it...duh!

[gigdiary]

Actually just got down to reading the post...

Saluté Sarkozy, way to go , you are an evolved gentleman, and she is a fortunate woman. Be that I could have a similar response.

[Angela]

Congratulations Mia and family!!
How lovely for Luca to have a little sister and a little brother.
Wishing you all much sleep :o)
xox

[Jason]

Mia gave birth to a 3kg baby boy we named Milo. Mia and Milo are doing well, Luca and Coco are adjusting well to their new little brother.

[gigdiary]

Thanks, Jason

[Emma]

Great post, was worth the wait (the wrong newspaper was delivered yesterday - of course it had to be the day Mia's baby announcement was in the paper!)
Pleased he is not actually called Milo though :-/
Remy is much nicer.

[Anne]

So is it Remy? Or does Mia really have children named Milo and a Coco??? How's that for a chocolate fixation!!