Carla Bruni parties like she hasn’t got a care in the world at Paris fashion show just days after Nicolas Sarkozy gets five-year jail term, and with criminal charges still hanging over her

Carla Bruni partied like she had not got a care in the world as she attended a fashion show in Paris last night, just days after her husband Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison and with her own criminal charges still unresolved.

The 56-year-old former First Lady was photographed smiling and chatting with guests at the Saint Laurent event while her husband, 70, prepares to appeal against his conviction for criminal conspiracy in the so-called Libya financing case.

Wearing a mustard dress and a brown fur coat, the former supermodel was seen in high spirits as she rubbed shoulders with other celebrities, including actress Amber Valletta and fellow ’90s model Linda Evangelista. 

She posed for several pictures at the Paris Fashion Week show, which showcased the designer’s Spring/Summer 2026 Womenswear collection. 

Bruni has been a regular at fashion shows since leaving the Élysée Palace in 2012 and has walked the runway herself in recent years. 

Last week, her husband, Sarkozy, was found guilty of taking millions from the regime of Muammar Gaddafi to fund his 2007 presidential campaign. 

He has denied the allegations and described the ruling as a travesty of justice. He remains free while his legal team appeals.  

Bruni is also facing legal issues – in June, she was charged over accusations of witness tampering and participation in a criminal association in the same case. 

French prosecutors say she may have tried to influence witnesses, including Ziad Takieddine, a businessman who has claimed he delivered cash from Tripoli to Sarkozy’s campaign team. She denies any wrongdoing.

Her judicial status means the case against her is serious enough to be pursued further, though no trial date has been set. 

Legal observers say she could face a prison sentence if convicted. The contrast between her appearance at the show and the gravity of the charges surrounding her family was striking. 

Days earlier, she had posted a message of support for her husband on Instagram, writing ‘Love is the answer’. 

Sarkozy’s sentence is the harshest ever imposed on a former French president. The case has dragged on for more than a decade and centres on claims that up to €50 million was channelled into his campaign from Libya.

Carla Bruni was seen at a Paris Fashion Week show. The former supermodel was placed under formal investigation over accusations of witness tampering and participation in a criminal association in her husband’s case

The former First Lady was seen wearing a mustard dress with a brown fur coat. The contrast between her appearance at the show and the gravity of the charges surrounding her family was striking

Bruni’s sighting at the event comes after it was reported that she plans to visit her husband every day in prison if his appeal is unsuccessful. 

Her biographer, Besma Lahouri, who authored Carla: A Secret Life, wrote in The Times: ‘While she waits for her own fate to be decided, Bruni, an excellent cook, will visit her husband every day, I’m willing to bet. 

‘Smart, bright and fiercely loyal, she will move heaven and earth to get him out of prison as quickly as possible.’

After her husband’s conviction, Bruni made headlines outside the court when she angrily grabbed a microphone cover from a journalist with French outlet Mediapart and threw it on the floor.

She stood by Sarkozy’s side as he made a speech after the verdict, saying: ‘If they absolutely want me to sleep in jail, I will sleep in jail, but with my head held high.’ 

As they walked to the car that would whisk them away to their gated community residence in Paris’s upmarket 16th district, Bruni was seen grabbing the red cover over the microphone of investigative reporting website Mediapart.

Investigative judges launched a probe in 2013 after Mediapart published what it said was a note from Libyan intelligence services, dated December 2006, that mentioned an alleged deal with that country’s then-ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, to help finance Sarkozy’s presidential race. 

Bruni is alleged to have been involved in a criminal conspiracy to ‘whitewash’ her husband over allegations that he accepted millions in cash from Gaddafi. 

In particular, she is accused of being part of a £4million campaign dubbed ‘Operation Save Sarko’ – a complex and illegal plan to try and keep Sarkozy out of a jail cell. 

Bruni was seen rubbing shoulders with other guests including model and actress Amber Valletta

Bruni also posed for pictures with fellow supermodel Linda Evangelista at the event 

Bruni has been a regular at Fashion Week events since leaving the the Élysée Palace in 2012

Both extremely serious offences are punishable by up to 10 years, with sentences going up to 20 years with aggravating circumstances such as gang membership. 

Sarkozy was acquitted by a Paris court of all other charges, including corruption and receiving illegal campaign financing.

But the ruling means the former president will spend time in jail even if he appeals, a sentence much harsher than many expected.

Sarkozy has already said he will appeal the verdict, which he denounced as ‘extremely serious for [the] rule of law’.

In a small win for the ex-president, the court ordered that Sarkozy should be placed in custody at a later date, with prosecutors given one month to inform the former head of state when he should go to prison, sparing the 70-year-old the humiliation of being marched out of the courtroom by police officers and going straight to jail.

Judge Nathalie Gavarino ruled that Sarkozy was guilty of having ‘allowed his close associates to act with a view to obtaining financial support from the Libyan regime’. 

It is the first time that a former French head of state has been found guilty of trying to use foreign money in such a manner. 

Sarkozy, who was elected in 2007 but lost his bid for re-election in 2012, denied all wrongdoing during a three-month trial earlier this year that also involved 11 co-defendants, including three former ministers.

Bruni stood by her husband’s side as he delivered a speech after his conviction. A biographer has said she will visit her husband every day throughout his sentence

Bruni was seen grabbing the red cover over the microphone of investigative reporting website Mediapart and throwing it on the ground

Sarkozy, accompanied by his wife,  entered a courtroom filled with reporters and members of the public. 

He sat in the front row of the defendants’ seats. His three adult sons were also in the room. 

Despite multiple legal scandals that have clouded his presidential legacy, Sarkozy remains an influential figure in Right-wing politics in France and in entertainment circles, by virtue of his marriage to Bruni.

The accusations trace their roots to 2011, when a Libyan news agency and Gaddafi himself said the Libyan state had secretly funnelled millions of euros into Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.

In 2012, the French investigative outlet Mediapart published what it said was a Libyan intelligence memo referencing a 50 million-euro funding agreement. 

Sarkozy denounced the document as a forgery and sued for defamation.

French magistrates later said that the memo appeared to be authentic, though no conclusive evidence of a completed transaction was presented at the three-month Paris trial.

Investigators also looked into a series of trips to Libya made by people close to Sarkozy when he served as interior minister from 2005 and 2007, including his chief of staff.

In 2016, Franco-Lebanese businessman Takieddine told Mediapart that he had delivered suitcases filled with cash from Tripoli to the French Interior Ministry under Sarkozy. 

He later retracted his statement.

The former leader was today found guilty of criminal conspiracy over efforts by close aides to procure funds for his 2007 presidential bid from Libya during the rule of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi (pictured)

That reversal is now the focus of a separate investigation into possible witness tampering. Both Sarkozy and Bruni were handed preliminary charges for involvement in alleged efforts to pressure Takieddine. That case has not gone to trial yet.

Takieddine, who was one of the co-defendants, died on Tuesday in Beirut, his lawyer Elise Arfi said. He was 75. He had fled to Lebanon in 2020 and did not attend the trial.

Sarkozy was tried on charges of passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, concealment of the embezzlement of public funds and criminal association. Prosecutors alleged that Sarkozy had knowingly benefited from what they described as a ‘corruption pact’ with Gaddafi’s government.

Libya’s longtime dictator was toppled and killed in an uprising in 2011, ending his four-decade rule of the North African country.

The trial shed light on France’s back-channel talks with Libya in the 2000s, when Gaddafi was seeking to restore diplomatic ties with the West. Before that, Libya was considered a pariah state.

Sarkozy has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and reliant on forged evidence. During the trial, he denounced a ‘plot’ he said was staged by ‘liars and crooks’ including the ‘Gaddafi clan’.

He suggested that the allegations of campaign financing were retaliation for his call – as France’s president – for Gaddafi’s removal.

Sarkozy was one of the first Western leaders to push for military intervention in Libya in 2011, when Arab Spring pro-democracy protests swept the Arab world.

Sarkozy remains an influential figure in Right-wing politics in France and in entertainment circles, by virtue of his marriage to Bruni-Sarkozy (pictured)

Claude Gueant, French politician and former secretary general of the Elysee Palace, arrives for the verdict in his trial with former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and other defendants

Sarkozy has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and reliant on forged evidence

‘What credibility can be given to such statements marked by the seal of vengeance?’ Sarkozy asked in comments during the trial.

In June, Sarkozy was stripped of his Legion of Honour medal – France’s highest award – after his conviction in a separate case.

Earlier, he was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling for trying to bribe a magistrate in 2014 in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated.

Sarkozy was sentenced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for one year. He was granted a conditional release in May due to his age, which allowed him to remove the electronic tag after he wore it for just over three months.

In another case, Sarkozy was convicted last year of illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 reelection bid. He was accused of having spent almost twice the maximum legal amount and was sentenced to a year in prison, of which six months were suspended.

Sarkozy has denied the allegations. He has appealed that verdict to the highest Court of Cassation, and that appeal is pending