French President Francois Hollande has stated he is considering a legal action against a magazine that claimed he was having an affair with actress Julie Gayet.
Describing weekly tabloid Closer's report as an "attack on the right to privacy" Hollande said that he "like every other citizen" has the right to privacy. The French president, however, did not deny the allegation that he was having an affair with the actress, the BBC reports.
Gayet, a reputed television and film actress, has acted in over 50 movies. The 41-year-old has also appeared once in one of Hollande's election campaign advertisements.
Reports on the alleged affair have been circulating on the internet for several months.
The print edition of the tabloid appeared on Friday with photographs, provided as proof of the relationship. The weekly, through a series of pictures, claims it has confirmed that the 59-year-old French President secretly spends his nights with Gayet at a flat located not far from Elysee Palace, where Hollande actually lives.
The president's current official partner is journalist Valerie Trierweiler, for whom he left the mother of his four children and fellow Socialist politician Segolene Royal.
The pictures published by the magazine purportedly shows Hollande and Gayet arriving at the flat separately. Hollande is seen on a motorbike - wearing a helmet - driven by a chauffeur. The magazine claims the President's bodyguards arrived the following morning to deliver croissants to the duo.
