French President François Hollande's Former Partner Valérie Trierweiler Releases Book on Affair

France's ex-first lady, Valérie Trierweiler released her revenge on French President Francois Hollande's infidelity in a 320-page memoir titled 'Merci Pour ce Moment' (Thank You for the Moment) that hit bookstores today (4 September).

In the book, Trierweiler gives explicit details on her split from the President after he was revealed by gossip magazine Closer to be having an affair with 42-year-old actress Julie Gayet.

Forty-nine-year old Trierweiler and Hollande were together for nine years.

Amongst other embarrassing details, Trierweiler says Hollande often jokingly called poor people, "the toothless".

"He presented himself as a man who disliked the rich. In reality, the president doesn't like the poor. In private, this man - the left-winger - calls them 'the toothless' and is so pleased at how funny he is," read an excerpt from the book, reported France24.

Trierweiler went into a state of hiding for eight days after news of her husband's affair first broke and was later checked into hospital for stress.

Trierweiler claims she was kept drugged with "astronomical doses of tranquillisers" to keep a tab on the scandal.

She reveals in the book how she reacted soon after the news broke.

"Julie Gayet was top of the morning news. I'm cracking up, I can't hear anything. I rush to the bathroom. I take the small plastic bag containing sleeping pills. François follows me. François chased after me and tried to grab the sleeping pills. I ran into the bedroom. He got hold of the bag of sleeping pills, and it ripped. The pills scattered all over the floor and the bed, but I was able to grab a few. I swallowed what I could. I just wanted to sleep, I didn't want to live through the hours that I know would follow."

Critics weigh in

"This is the opposite of what he stands for," said Hollande's former partner Ségolène Royal who now serves as the Environment Minister.

Royal called Trierweiler's accusations, "total nonsense".

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Front National party and one of Hollande's political rivals, further mocked the book calling it a "profoundly indecent settling of scores. A dishonour as much for the person speaking, as the person being spoken about".

Trierweiler was reportedly paid 55,000 pounds (70,000 Euros) as an advance for the book, which was drafted in utmost secrecy.

The book was the number one bestseller on Amazon France on its first day out (4 September) overtaking the erotic bestseller, "Fifty Shades Of Grey", and has been given a whopping 200,000 print run.

Excerpts from the book were also published on Paris Match and daily Le Monde.

In one excerpt, Trierweiler reveals that on the night of Hollande's presidential victory in May 2012, Hollande blatantly rejected one of her suggestions: "At that minute, I foresaw that nothing would be as it was before," she wrote.