In France, however, an opinion poll suggested that a clear majority of voters think the president's love life is no concern of theirs.
The survey by IFOP said 77 per cent of French voters believe the alleged affair was a private matter.
Eighty-four percent said it would not change their opinion of the Socialist leader whose failure to turn around the ailing economy and bring down stubbornly high unemployment has made him the most unloved French president in modern history.
'He is so unpopular that it hasn't changed a thing,' Frederic Dabi of IFOP told the Journal du Dimanche, the paper that commissioned the poll which confirmed France's famed tolerance towards the colourful love lives of its leaders.
The president is expected to address the alleged affair and what it means for his relationship with France's 'First Girlfriend' at his traditional start of the year press conference on Tuesday.
If he announces it is over with she would have to leave the Elysee, and if he does not she would still be in the embarrassing situation of having to put a brave face on it as France snickers about her boyfriend's antics.
'Is it normal that she stays at the Elysee at taxpayers' expense while the president has other relationships?' asked opposition UMP party deputy Daniel Fasquelle, a rare exception to the wave of support Mr Hollande has received from political friends and foes who profess to be outraged at the invasion of his privacy.
'The French may ask themselves the question: who is now the first lady of France?' Mr Fasquelle tweeted.
Mr Hollande had been hoping to focus on Tuesday on his new business-friendly plans to kickstart the economy, but the hour and a half of questions he will face are instead set to be dominated by queries about his private life.
The conference is one of the rare occasions when a French president subjects himself to a prolonged grilling by the media. In 2008 it was used by the recently divorced then president Nicolas Sarkozy to announce that with his new love, ex-supermodel Carla Bruni, 'it's serious'.
Trierweiler, a journalist for whom Mr Hollande left fellow Socialist politician Ségolène Royal, the mother of his four children, has made no comment since Closer broke the story on Friday.
Miss Gayet has also remained silent.
Miss Royal on Sunday refused to comment on the alleged affair, saying she did not want to fuel the debate on 'a soap opera that is very far from the concerns of the French'.
'We must turn the page and get back to work,' she told France 2 television.
Posted by Unknown on Sunday, January 12, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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