Anne Sinclair, a prominent French journalist, supported the former International Monetary Fund chief when he was arrested in New York in 2011 on accusations by a hotel maid.
Sinclair later divorced him. She spoke on French television last night for the first time about their relationship.
Sinclair said "I didn't know anything" about his sexual activity outside their marriage. Asked whether she was in denial, she said, "certainly ... I undoubtedly didn't want to know."
She called the hotel encounter "stupid" but doesn't believe it was rape.