AP News, October 18th, 2007
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office has announced that he and his wife, Cecilia, plan to divorce. Some other government leaders and heads of state who separated or divorced while in power.
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Nelson Mandela — A judge granted the then-South African president a divorce in 1996 on grounds that his wife, Winnie, had been unfaithful. The couple wed in 1958 during a five-year treason trial in which Mandela was a defendant. In the divorce hearings, Mandela testified that his marriage had broken down almost immediately after he was freed from prison in 1990. The Mandelas had separated in 1992 after she was convicted and fined in her bodyguards' kidnapping of four black youths. One of the youths was beaten to death.
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Carlos Menem — The then-Argentine president locked his wife, Zulema Yoma de Menem, out of the presidential residence in 1990 after she repeatedly assailed his policies. On one occasion while he was away, she invited journalists over for a barbecue to criticize his leadership. She later filed for divorce, accusing Menem of adultery. Menem married former Miss Universe Cecilia Bolocco of Chile in 2001 but announced this May that they had separated — after photographs were published of her sunbathing topless with an Italian friend in Miami.
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Alberto Fujimori — The then-Peruvian president cut off water and power to the quarters of his wife, Susana Higuchi, and stripped her of the title of first lady in 1994 after she accused him of tolerating widespread corruption in his administration. He said she was disloyal, as well as "unstable and easily influenced" by his political rivals. Their divorce was finalized in 1996.
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Andreas Papandreou — Greece's late prime minister left his wife in the late 1980s, when he was about 70, after having an affair with a 35-year-old flight attendant. He later divorced his wife and married the flight attendant, Dimitra Liani. While he was seeking re-election in 1989, nude pictures of Liani were prominently displayed in the media.
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Goeran Persson — The then-prime minister of Sweden divorced from his wife of seven years, Annika, in 2003. He was photographed with a new girlfriend some four weeks after the divorce was finalized.
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Hugo Chavez — The Venezuelan president divorced his second wife of five years, journalist Marisabel de Chavez, in 2002. In an interview with El Universal newspaper, she cited a "contrast of personalities" and admitted having differences with Chavez's views — particularly his self-proclaimed revolution in favor of the downtrodden. She also expressed frustration at having to flee the presidential mansion with her children during times of political turmoil.
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Jaime Lusinchi — The Venezuelan president openly lived with his private secretary, Blanca Ibanez, and divorced his wife of 40 years, Gladys Lusinchi, while in office. There was no public criticism of the divorce until late in the 1988 election campaign, when the Roman Catholic Church condemned the divorce suit and a few opposition politicians accused Ibanez of abuse of power.
