Francois Hollande's girlfriend 'jealous' of his ex-partner

London, May 21 (ANI): French president Francois Hollande's girlfriend is reportedly insecure about the role of the president's former partner, Segolene Royal.

Royal is the mother of their four children and is a leading Socialist Party figure.

Despite apparently strained relations between Hollande and Royal, Valerie Trierweiler remains suspicious, according to reports in France, just a week after the new First Couple took up residence in the Elysee Palace.

"Segolene Royal remains the object of profound and irrational jealousy," the Telegraph quoted the Right-leaning French weekly, l'Express, as writing.

In one cited example, Trierweiler reportedly sent an angry text message to the author of a report by Paris Match, which had referred to the son of the "Royal-Hollande couple".

Trierweiler, who is France's first unmarried first lady with three children from a previous marriage, wrote: "Of the ex-couple, Royal-Hollande! What game are you playing?" according the French weekly, Le Canard Enchaine.

Trierweiler, who has built a career on political reporting, has been credited with putting Hollande on a diet and helping pave his presidential rise to power.

But when it comes to Royal, the l'Express report this week claims Trierweiler's sometimes steely behaviour has burdened the working relationship between Royal and Hollande, with "a private jealousy that complicates political relations".

The weekly goes on to describe how Hollande's election campaign team was forced to carefully choreograph the first public Royal-Hollande meeting, in order to appease an edgy Trierweiler, "to the point where it became a question of editing out the Royal-Hollande photo," planned for the event.

"With Valerie, everything that concerns Segolene is out of the rational domain," said an anonymous source close to the couple, according to l'Express.

"It's almost impossible to talk about the topic in front of her, even from a purely political angle," it added.

Royal was also unexpectedly absent from Hollande's swearing-in ceremony, even though she fills an active political role within the Socialist Party, and hopes to be made president of the National Assembly if the Socialists win a majority in legislative elections in June. (ANI)