Shorn of her status as the first lady, Valerie Trierweiler, former partner of French President Francois Hollande, made her first public appearance here today, saying she was feeling "happy" but remained largely evasive about her private life.
She appeared to briefly flare up when asked about her future and said, "Don't worry about me."
Trierweiler, who went ahead with her India visit despite the weekend announcement of the separation by Hollande, said fight against hunger and malnutrition was a cause "close to my heart" and did not directly answer questions about the scandal.
"I have time, there are some years to come. I will see bit by bit. For now I am not foreseeing anything. In any case, don't worry about me," Trierweiler, 48, told a reporter at a media conference for the launch of charity Fight Hunger Foundation.
"I don't know if it's for me to judge, or for you. I was there for 19 months," Trierweiler, a career journalist and Hollande's companion of eight years, said about her time as the first lady in her brief public comments since the scandal broke out earlier this month following revelations of the President's affair with actress Julie Gayet, 41.
A French magazine had published news and photos of Hollande visiting the actress for a secret tryst on a scooter.
A distraught Trierweiler was hospitalised for a week after the scandal became public and was later resting at a presidential retreat before embarking on her visit to India.
"I was able to discover people who I hadn't known. I understood that you can be useful, and in being useful to others you can be useful to yourself," she said, speaking in French.
Though the couple started living together after Hollande's split from Segolene Royal, a Socialist party presidential candidate in 2007 who was defeated by his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, the couple never married.
Trierweiler assumed responsibilities of the first lady after Hollande's election in 2012.
"This visit has been in my diary for the last six months and we have been planning it for the last year. I wouldn't have missed it for the world," she said, putting up a brave face.
