Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption BBC's Tim Allman: "Francois Hollande had once called Valerie Trierweiler the love of his life" 
 
 French President Francois Hollande has confirmed his separation from his partner Valerie Trierweiler. 
 
 He told the AFP news agency that their "shared life" had ended. 
 
 Two weeks ago a magazine published photos which appeared to show Mr Hollande had been having an affair with an actress, Julie Gayet. 
 
 Ms Trierweiler spent a week in hospital after the revelations. On Saturday evening she tweeted her thanks to the "wonderful staff" at the Elysee Palace. 
 
 She said she "would never forget their devotion or the emotion at the time of departure". 
 
 Analysis Thus ends a remarkable emotional saga that has captivated the French - and the world - for the last two weeks. It was probably inevitable that it would end like this, with Valerie Trierweiler quitting the Elysee. But the lack of any official communication had given rise to all sorts of rumours. Right until Francois Hollande came out with his personal statement breaking their relationship, it was impossible to rule out a reconciliation. What happens now? Well, the president has not said it publicly, but his entourage have passed on the message: for the time being there will be no replacement for the ex-first lady. Indeed, Mr Hollande is said to regret ever elevating Ms Trierweiler to the position in the first place, as her unease in the role clearly posed problems from the start. As for Julie Gayet, we shall have to see how he continues his relationship with her. Maybe she will become an acknowledged part of his life, but without any official role and certainly not moving into the Elysee. Perhaps at some point she will start being seen with him, and accompanying him on trips. But probably that won't be any time soon. Right now the president would probably prefer some time tangle-free. 
 
 Mr Hollande, who has never denied having an affair with Julie Gayet, had admitted to a "difficult moment" in his relationship with Ms Trierweiler. 
 
 At the time of the revelations, he promised to clarify the situation before his official visit to Washington on 11 February. 
 
 Mr Hollande told AFP on Saturday that he was speaking in a personal capacity and not as the head of state. 
 
 "I am making it known that I have put an end to my shared life with Valerie Trierweiler," he said in a phone call to the agency. 
 
 Ms Trierweiler, who has continued to work as a journalist for the glossy magazine Paris-Match, is due to travel to India on Sunday in support of the work of the French charity Action Against Hunger. 
 
 After leaving hospital, she stayed at an official presidential residence near Versailles, for a few days. 
 
 Ms Trierweiler and Mr Hollande have never married. 
 
 She announced their relationship six months after he left his previous partner, one-time French presidential candidate Segolene Royal, with whom he has four children. 
 
 For her part, Ms Gayet has announced she is suing Closer magazine, which published the original reports, for breach of privacy. 
 
 Closer magazine said that the affair had begun during the 2012 presidential race. 

 Paris (AFP) - French President Francois Hollande on Saturday told AFP he has split with his longstanding partner Valerie Trierweiler after his affair with an actress nearly 20 years his junior. 
 
 The announcement came after a day of rumours in the French media that Hollande would formally announce the rupture on Saturday, on the eve of a visit by Trierweiler to India for charity work. 
 
 Saying he was speaking as a private individual and not as head of state as the matter concerned his private life, Hollande told AFP over the phone: "I wish to make it known that I have ended my partnership with Valerie Trierweiler." 
 
 Trierweiler, 48, had been convalescing at a presidential residence in Versailles outside Paris after leaving hospital last Saturday, where she was treated for what was described as fatigue brought on by press revelations of Hollande's affair with 41-year-old actress Julie Gayet. 
 
 "I extend all my gratitude to the fantastic Elysee staff. I will never forget their dedication nor the emotional farewell," Trierweiler said on Twitter Saturday. 
 
 She is due to fly to Mumbai on Sunday for a charity trip organised by French relief group Action Against Hunger (ACF), in her first public appearance since the scandal broke two weeks ago. 
 
 View gallery French President Francois Hollande (L) and his partner Valerie Trierweiler at Tokyo's Haneda air … 
 
 An ACF spokeswoman told AFP the trip "was confirmed this morning by Ms. Trierweiler's office". 
 
 "Hollande, who took the initiative for the separation, wanted to make it official before Valerie Trierweiler's departure for India," the Journal du Dimanche weekly said on its website. 
 
 Hollande, 59, announced his separation from Segolene Royal, a senior member of his Socialist party and a presidential candidate in 2007, just after she lost the election to Nicolas Sarkozy. 
 
 He then started living openly with Trierweiler. Although she is not married to Hollande, she assumed the role of First Lady at official functions after Hollande's election in 2012. 
 
 Break-up lunch 
 
 View gallery A file picture taken on May 15, 2012 shows the French president's former partner Valerie Trierwe … 
 
 After Hollande's confirmation of the split, Le Parisien daily said on its website that Trierweiler had left the presidential retreat near the chateau of Versailles on Saturday for their apartment in Paris's middle-class 15th arrondissement. 
 
 The Journal du Dimanche said the couple had worked out the terms of the split at a lunch on Thursday. 
 
 Hollande had promised at a news conference earlier this month that he would publicly define what relationship, if any, he and Trierweiler had before a February 11 state visit to the United States. 
 
 US President Barack Obama "looks forward to seeing President Hollande as planned," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden told AFP on Saturday, without further comment. 
 
 Hollande's announcement comes after a spat between Trierweiler and her lawyer Frederique Giffard, who said Thursday that her client was aware that a "clarification" on her tangled situation was due. 
 
 View gallery A combination made on January 14, 2014 shows a photo of French journalist and companion of the Franc … 
 
 But Trierweiler reacted furiously to the lawyer's remarks and chastened Giffard for speaking without her permission. 
 
 Trierweiler is a glamorous, twice-divorced career journalist who has three children of her own and has been Hollande's partner for the best part of a decade. 
 
 She emerged into the spotlight before he was elected president, and warned that she would not be a wallflower, saying in April 2012: "I have character, they cannot muzzle me." 
 
 That was quickly proven when Trierweiler tweeted her support in legislative elections for an independent rival of Royal, with whom the First Lady did not have a warm relationship. 
 
 The tweet went down badly in France, and Trierweiler's reputation suffered, with many deeming her somewhat arrogant. A recent poll said she was the least-liked French First Lady in modern history. 
 
 After Hollande's election, Trierweiler cut down on her work at the French magazine Paris-Match and engaged in charitable activities. 
 
 Trierweiler's only comment since French glossy Closer on January 10 splashed photos of Hollande arriving for alleged trysts at a flat near the Elysee Palace on a scooter had been a tweet thanking her supporters after she was released from hospital. 
 
 Hollande is the second French president to split from his partner while in office. In 2007, his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy divorced his wife Cecilia and married former supermodel and singer Carla Bruni the following year. 
 
 Hollande, who is France's least popular president according to opinion polls, has never denied an affair with Gayet but has so far steadfastly refused to answer questions about his love life.
– Elysee Palace told the BBC the breakup rumors were false—but the French president himself says otherwise. Francois Hollande has confirmed that he and partner Valerie Trierweiler, France's first lady, have split up, AFP reports. "I wish to make it known that I have ended my partnership with Valerie Trierweiler," Hollande says. He "took the initiative for the separation," according to France's Journal du Dimanche, and he "wanted to make it official before Valerie Trierweiler's departure for India." Currently in a presidential residence after a hospital stay, Trierweiler is due to visit Mumbai tomorrow for a charity event. Hollande and Trierweiler, a journalist, had been together for what AFP calls "the best part of a decade." News of the split comes on the heels of rumors that Hollande has been seeing actress Julie Gayet; France's Closer magazine says that affair started in 2012, the BBC notes. Gayet is suing Closer for invading her privacy.