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US, France deny Michelle Obama made "hell" comment
America and France have refuted a claim in a forthcoming book that Michelle Obama told Carla Bruni that life as in the White House was 'hell'.
America and France have refuted a claim in a forthcoming book that Michelle Obama told Carla Bruni that life as in the White House was 'hell'.
According to the forthcoming book, Carla and the Ambitious, Bruni recalled that during a recent White House visit with her husband, the French president, she asked US First Lady Michelle Obama about her new role to which she replied: "It's hell. I can't stand it."
The book was written by journalists Michael Darmon and Yves Derai in what they claim is collaboration with Bruni.
Michelle Obama's spokesman slapped down the claims, first published in Thursday's Daily Mail.
The Elysee Palace has also denied the reports that Bruni co-operated with the biography.
The French Embassy in Washington also released a statement denying that Mrs Obama ever said those words.
"Mrs. Bruni-Sarkozy distances herself completely from the content of the book 'Carla and the Ambitious,' which was not authorized and the authors alone are responsible for its contents," says Emmanuel Lenain, the embassy spokesman.
"The words attributed to the First Lady of the United States were never said."
Meanwhile, authors of the book have defended their source.
Derai, who co-wrote the book, acknowledged the French word used in the passage, "enfer", might not correspond directly with the English word "hell".
