Report: Bruni expects lifetime with Sarkozy

PARIS, France (AP) -- -- France's new first lady said in an interview published Tuesday that despite her whirlwind romance with President Nicolas Sarkozy, she expects the marriage to last a lifetime.

Carla Bruni, a model-turned-singer, told the newsweekly L'Express that her first meeting with Sarkozy was love at first sight. The Italian-born Bruni and Sarkozy tied the knot February 2 at the presidential Elysee Palace.

"I didn't hesitate," after meeting him, Bruni said in her first interview since becoming first lady. "Right away, I wanted to marry him."

The discretion surrounding the quiet exchange of vows at the Elysee Palace contrasted with the couple's public romance, which caught the world's attention.

It was the first marriage for Bruni, 40, and the third for the 53-year-old Sarkozy. He married Bruni less than four months after his divorce from Cecilia Sarkozy.

Bruni has a short answer for those who thought the marriage came too fast: "Wrong."

"Between Nicolas and me, it wasn't quick, it was immediate," L'Express quoted her as saying.

Bruni has never made a secret of her relationships with the rich and famous, from Donald Trump to Mick Jagger. But she suggested that Sarkozy was different from the others.

"It seems that with him, nothing bad can happen ... ," she told L'Express, which posted extracts from the interview on its Web site. "With him, an anxiousness that I've felt since childhood disappears," Bruni said.

Bruni said she does not like the idea of divorce and said she would be a no-nonsense first lady of France.

"I don't yet know what I might do as first lady, but I know how I will do it: seriously," she said. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.