Cecilia to marry her long-term lover

Cecilia Cignaner-Albaniz is to marry Richard Attias, the PR man she had a love affair with during her marriage to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Her marriage plans were confirmed by fashion house Versace which will design the couple's wedding outfits. Point de Vue magazine say the ceremony will be in New York on March 22.

Cecilia briefly left Sarkozy for Attias in 2005 but returned to him a few months later. However, she was absent during his presidential campaign in early 2007 and the couple divorced in October after Cecilia admitted her affair with Attias. In a book by Anna Bitton, Cecilia was quoted as saying: "Richard is the person I have loved the most in my life. I think that I had never loved before meeting him."

Her marriage follows her former husband's marriage to Italian supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni, 40, at the Elysee Palace in Paris last month after a whirlwind romance.

After Cecilia went back to Nicolas, the Moroccan-born Attias reportedly said he has found it hard to forgive her. "There is another Cecilia. I've seen her. I am afraid of her."