Nicholas Sarkozy bids farewell to mother at her funeral | Express Digest

Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy bid a final farewell to his mother Andrée at a funeral service near Paris on Monday.

The 62-year-old looked sombre as he was pictured walking into Saint-Jean-Baptiste church in Neuilly-Sur-Seine, alongside wife Carla Bruni and their daughter Giulia.

Andrée Mallah – who was known as Dadu to the family – died on December 12 aged 93.

The ex-president was famously close to his mother, who often accompanied her son to political meetings and even joined him on an official trip to China in 2008.

Nicolas Sarkozy, his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and their daughter Giulia attending the funeral of Andree Sarkozy at Saint-Jean-Baptiste church in Neuilly-Sur-Seine, near Paris

She was last seen in public in April this year.

Sarkozy was once quoted as saying: ‘I owe her everything. She brought me up in every sense of the word.’

Andrée was also mother to Guillaume and François Sarkozy and grandmother to Sarkozy’s sons from his two previous marriages, Pierre, Jean and Louis.

Born in 1925 in the ninth arrondissement in Paris, Andrée was forced to flee the French capital during the Second World War with her parents and sister because of her father’s Jewish heritage.

Andrée was also mother to Guillaume and François Sarkozy and grandmother to Sarkozy’s sons from his two previous marriage, Pierre, Jean and Louis. Pictured: The coffin arrives for the service

Pierre-Olivier (left), Sarkozy’s half brother, was also at the ceremony. Andrée Mallah – who was known as Dadu to the family – died on December 12 aged 93

After the war, she returned to Paris to study law, where she met her future husband Pál Sarkozy in 1949.

When her husband left his wife and children in 1959, she became a single parent.

Speaking about her children’s upbringing in a 2007 interview with magazine Point de vue, she said: ‘I had three rules: that they worked, didn’t brag and did sport.’

Earlier this week, singer-songwriter Bruni, 49, paid tribute to her mother-in-law on her official Instagram account while on tour in Istanbul.

‘Thank you Istanbul,’ she wrote. ‘It was a beautiful concert despite the pain that has overwhelmed our lives. Despite the sadness and grief at having lost Dadue, my mother-in-law, and then the terrible heartbreak of having to leave my husband on a day like this.

‘I didn’t have the choice. That’s life. The show must go on, they say. That’s the fate of artists. But we only have one mother, and my husband’s sadness has filled my heart.’

Bruni is also mother to a son, 16-year-old Aurelien, with her former partner, the philosopher Raphael Enthoven.

The ex-president was famously close to his mother, who often accompanied her son to political meetings and even an official trip to China in 2008 (pictured)