Former French First Lady Carla Bruni is pregnant with her third child at the age of 44, it was claimed today.
The baby will be her second with husband and former president Nicolas Sarkozy, 56, France's Closer magazine reported.
The revelation comes after reports this week that Bruni had 'fallen into depression' since Sarkozy was defeated in last month's presidential election.
Friends said she had the 'baby blues' after giving birth to baby Guilia last September, and was now suffering from 'presidential blues' after quitting the Elysee Palace.
Doctors were urging the former supermodel to have 'total rest' because she is an older mother giving birth in her 40s, Closer said.
The magazine added: 'For several weeks people have been asking why she had not been able to shift the extra weight for her last baby.
'But we can now reveal Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is pregnant again. And with her stomach looking ever more round, she can no longer hide it.
'She clearly wants to nurture this pregnancy with the utmost care, because, like the last one, it is later in life so all the riskier, and she has therefore been advised to take as much rest as possible.
'We wondered what the Sarkozy couple would do with themselves after leaving office, and now we know - play happy families!'
Bruni - who has had previous relaionships with Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton - also has 11-year-old son Aurelian with philosophy professor Raphael Enthoven.
Sarkozy has two sons, Pierre, 25, and Jean, 23, from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli, who he divorced in 1996.
He has a 13-year-old son Louis from his second marriage to Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, who he divorced in 2007.
Friends of Bruni told France's VSD magazine this week that she was currently 'at her lowest' since returning to normal life.
A friend told VSD: 'She has not been doing well since the birth of Guilia. She had baby blues, which have now become presidential blues.
'And she has only one subject of conversation - the journalists which caused Nicolas's defeat.
'That's all she speaks about. She says she has never seen front pages so insulting as those that Nicolas was subjected to during his campaign.'
Bruni is also said to have been 'deeply hurt' by reports and photographs showing the effects of too much botox on her face.
And friends said she was infuriated by claims she intended to divorce her husband if he failed to get re-elected.
Bruni herself said on France 5 television during Mr Sarkozy's election campaign: 'The journalists have been deplorable, and very aggressive with him.
'The level of criticism and lies reached incredible levels.
'But I suppose that's the freedom of the press for you. It makes me think it would be better to be living in a dictatorship.'
Bruni and Sarkozy are currently living in her £3million Paris townhouse, where he has taken up a £10,000-a-month post on France Constitutional Council, the country's highest legal body, and she is planning to return to her career as a pop singer.