Carla Bruni sees herself as the heir to Jackie Onassis

Carla Bruni has come clean – she is styling herself on Jackie Onassis, the late wife of John F Kennedy, rather than on France’s first post-war First Lady, Yvonne de Gaulle, who was once photographed ladling out soup to the poor. All is revealed in an interview in the new Vanity Fair magazine which is run across several pages and features photographs by Annie Leibovitz, one of which has Bruni on the roof of the Elysee Palace in a stunning, blood-red, strapless dress. It is fair to assume Mme de Gaulle rarely climbed onto the roof of the Elysee Palace or that she ever wore a cleavage-revealing strapless dress.

Explaining her Jackie O dream, Carla B says: "She [Jackie] was so young and modern, and of course unconsciously I would project myself more like Jackie Kennedy than, for instance, Mme de Gaulle, who would be much more like the classical French woman behind her husband."

Bruni offers few political insights, save, perhaps, the revelation that President Sarkozy was pleased when old nude photos of his new wife appeared on the internet. To pre-empt her husband's anger, the former supermodel had shown him some of the images, saying: "You must know this is going to come out." She claims he replied: "Oh, I like this one! Can I have a print?"