10 Questions for Carla Bruni

“Mon Raymond,” a cut on your new album, Little French Songs, is about your husband Nicolas Sarkozy, the former President of France. Did you show it to him before you recorded it?
I don’t really have to show it to him because, since we’re living together, he’s hearing it. My poor family has to hear my music the whole time. Believe me, he knew it step by step.

One of the lines translates as “Although he wears a tie, my Raymond is a pirate.” What does this mean?
There’s something very Establishment-ish about people wearing perfect suits and ties and being very serious and having important jobs. So it was just a joke about the fact that, despite the fact that he’s wearing a tie, he could be like a pirate. But this is only a song, you know.

And he’s an “atomic bomb”?
In French, that just means someone looking hot, really sexy or something. Une bombe atomique, it means an explosive type of person.

When your husband was in power, you had to put your career on hold. How did you work out whose career came first after he lost the 2012 election?
It wasn’t a very long time. It wasn’t very much of a sacrifice. It was just about appearing nice and also helping in humanitarian causes, which I’m really interested in. Of course, I couldn’t go on tour, and I couldn’t do as much as I wanted to do as a musician. But he likes me being happy in work, and he knows that music is all my life, so we didn’t even have to talk about it. We did it naturally.

Have you discussed his running again?
It is not at all the subject of the moment for him. We’ll see.

You found out later in life that the man who raised you, Alberto Bruni Tedeschi, is not your biological father. Are you in touch with your biological father?
Oh, yeah. We are in contact. He lives in Brazil, so we don’t really hang out as much as we want to, but every time he comes to Europe we are together, and he’s a great grandfather. The end of a lie is always nice.

You have been on about 250 magazine covers. Does it ever get old to see your face there?
I don’t really look at it. Otherwise it makes you a bit crazy. If you get into the public eye, I think the best solution is to accept it and not try to control it. It is not such a big deal: a picture, a shirt, makeup–it’s nice to look nice, but to make such a big fuss about it, there’s no point.

You recently shot a campaign for Bulgari. Are you surprised to still be modeling at 45?
Not really. I’ve noticed that they’re using women of our age more and more. I don’t think women identify only with young girls. If you buy a moisturizing cream, maybe you enjoy it more if the model is a woman of your age .

Of all the world leaders you’ve met, who was the worst dresser?
Political people don’t have much time for [style]. I don’t see why they should be interested when they have many other important things to do, to tell you the truth.

What was your first car?
I don’t have a license. I tried many times. I take the Métro.

You must wear a big hat.
No, a small hat. Everything big attracts attention. If you put on large glasses and a big hat, of course everyone would notice you. But if you put on reading glasses, a baseball cap and a sports suit, no one notices.