When Michelle O. met the first lady of France, former model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, this spring, they were heralded as bringing back Camelot-era glamour to international politics. The pair charmed crowds while officials from 28 nations marked the 60th anniversary of NATO in April 2009. The two women couldn’t have more different backgrounds, though: Michelle started life on the South Side of Chicago and worked her way to Princeton, while the Italian-born tire heiress Bruni-Sarkozy is a supermodel-singer-songwriter who counts Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton among her lovers.
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Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of Japan’s new prime minister, is quite well-prepared for diplomatic visits to foreign lands. Because she’s already visited other planets. Two decades ago, in a book of interviews titled Most Bizarre Things I’ve Encountered, the future Japanese first lady explained, “While my body was sleeping, I think my spirit flew on a triangular-shaped UFO to Venus. It was an extremely beautiful place and was very green.” Hatoyama met her husband when she belonged to a troupe of female singers and dancers who performed musicals. Since then she’s written several books, been a lifestyle consultant, and frequently appeared on TV. She says she knew Tom Cruise in a past life (he was Japanese then, of course) and that she “eats the sun” every morning (“Yum, yum, yum”).
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South African President Jacob Zuma’s wife Nompumelelo Ntuli wore a fabulous hat to her husband’s inauguration in May, which she attended with Zuma’s two other wives. At that ceremony, Zuma introduced his eldest wife as first lady, but she describes herself as shy and rarely makes public appearances. However, middle wife Ntuli likes the red carpet and attended the G-8 summit with her husband in July. Of his polygamous marriage, Zuma has said, “There are plenty of politicians who have mistresses and children that they hide so as to pretend they’re monogamous. I prefer to be open. I love my wives and I’m proud of my children.”
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Obama looked traditional wearing a cardigan and pearls in London on the eve of the G-20 summit in April.
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Zavala de Calderon is the only presidential spouse in Mexico to have served in the nation’s congress. Though her husband, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, has avoided talking about abortion, Zavala has spoken out against it.
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Turkey has protected its secularism for years by forbidding women from wearing Islamic headscarves in government buildings and universities, so one reason commentators were upset at the election of President Abdullah Gul was that his wife, Hayrunnisa, wears the traditional head covering. But the Turkish first lady refuses to budge, saying she is a modern woman underneath: “My scarf covers my head, not my brain.”
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Russia’s first lady frequently tops the country’s best-dressed lists. Despite the fact that Svetlana Medvedeva, a trained economist, socialite and arts patron, is frequently photographed in Russian tabloids, she rarely gives interviews. At a Russian film awards ceremony last year, Medvedeva wore an ebony mink coat and sat in the first row between two bodyguards. She’s pictured here celebrating Russia’s Family, Love, and Loyalty Day in July.
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Germany’s first husband, Joachim Sauer will not be attending the ceremonies hosted by Michelle Obama in Pittsburgh this week. “No boys. Just girls,” Obama’s chief of staff explained. The quantum chemist has been known to don a bowtie, yet is so publicity-averse that he watched his wife, Angela Merkel, being sworn in as German chancellor on TV, instead of in person. In May, Sauer did leave his lab long enough to celebrate of the 60th anniversary of the Federal Republic of Germany in Berlin.
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Obama often projects a traditional image by wearing simple cardigans, as she did at the Evening Parade at the Washington Marine Barracks on July 24 in Washington.
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Bruni-Sarkozy’s sartorial choices—as when she visited Queen Sofia of Spain in April—often present a conservative image somewhat at odds with her past as a rock star-loving singer-supermodel.
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Thérèse Rein was a big deal long before her husband was elected prime minister of Australia. She founded an employment agency and is the first Aussie first lady to keep her job while her husband was in office. Rein earned 1.4 million Australian dollars last year and is worth an estimated $60 million.
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In April, Bruni-Sarkozy looked pitch-perfect as always at a gala dinner honoring her husband at the Royal Palace in Spain.
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Much of the gang got together in July for the G-8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy. From left: Maria Margarita Barroso, wife of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso; Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown; Chikako Aso, wife of Japan’s former prime minister, Taro Aso; Gursharan Kaur, wife of Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh; Laureen Teskey Harper, wife of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper; Italian Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini; Ntuli; Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno, his wife, Isabella Rauti; Zavala; Obama; Filippa Reinfeldt, wife of Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt; Italian Equal Opportunities Minister (and former topless model) Mara Carfagna; Juliana Olabintan Nwanze, wife of International Fund for Agricultural Development President Kanayo Nwanze, and an unidentified person say cheese in front of a statue of Marcus Aurelius at a museum in Rome.
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