Ex-French first lady weds Moroccan-born beau

Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, the ex-wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, married her Moroccan-born lover at New York's glitzy Rainbow Room on Sunday, in a ceremony attended by around 150 guests.

Ciganer-Albeniz and third husband Richard Attias, a multi-millionaire events organizer, arrived for the nuptials in a black limousine with tinted windows pursued by a pack of paparazzi, and sped into an underground garage.

The wedding came just over a month after Sarkozy wed former model and singer Carla Bruni and barely five months after the presidential couple announced their divorce.

After the ceremony, guests who left early were tight lipped about the celebrations, declining to even confirm that the couple had tied the knot, let alone to reveal what the bride was wearing.

The ceremony itself was followed by cocktails and dinner at the Rainbow Room, a historic venue described by New York Magazine as "one place true New Yorkers expect never to visit" and catering for "easy-to-impress tourists."

Details surrounding the wedding had been shrouded in secrecy. Rumors had been floating around that the couple would hold a Jewish ceremony.

According to reports, guests were told not to bring cameras or phones with cameras, to protect the couple's privacy.

Other reports said that French magazine Paris-Match had declined an offer of exclusive rights to cover the wedding, apparently over fears of upsetting Sarkozy, known to be friends with the magazine's owner, Arnaud Lagardere.

Ciganer-Albeniz's involvement with Attias first became public when the couple were photographed stepping out of a New York hotel together in 2005, during a break in her marriage to Sarkozy.

Rumors had been circulating for weeks that Ciganer-Albeniz, 50, was to marry Attias, 48, and Italian fashion house Versace let the cat out of the bag earlier this month, when it said it would be dressing the couple for the event.

Ciganer-Albeniz and Sarkozy, 53, announced their divorce last October, ending a stormy 11-year marriage. In February, less than four months later, Sarkozy married Bruni, 40, an Italian-born former model turned singer.

Sunday's marriage was Ciganer-Albeniz's third. She first met Sarkozy in 1984 when, as mayor of the Paris suburb of Neuilly, he officiated at her wedding to late television presenter Jacques Martin.

The story goes that Sarkozy vowed there and then to marry her one day.