She portrayed him as a cold, cruel and calculating man whose cheating drove her to swallow a large dose of sleeping tablets.
However, the accusation that hurt French president François Hollande the most in his former partner Valérie Trierweiler's kiss-and-tell book is her claim that he despises the poor and calls them the "sans dents" (toothless).
In an exclusive interview with Le Nouvel Observateur to be published today, Mr Hollande addresses the term, already set to become a leitmotif of his beleaguered administration.
“I felt this attack on the poor, the dispossessed, as if it were a blow to my whole life,” Mr Hollande says. “In all the posts I have held, I have only thought of helping, representing those who suffer. I have never been on the side of the powerful, even if I’m not their enemy, but I know where I come from.”
He adds: “You think I have forgotten from where I come? My maternal grandfather, a Savoyard tailor, lived with his family in a simple two-room flat in Paris.
"My paternal grandfather, a teacher, came from a poor rural family from northern France. And you think that I could despise the background in which I have my roots? That is my reason for being here."
‘Ground down by life’
Mr Hollande continues: “Yes, I have met people in difficult circumstances, ground down by life. They cannot afford to look after their teeth. It’s a sign of the worst misery. These people, I have been among, I have helped them and supported them.”
Le Nouvel Observateur describes Mr Hollande, known for his witty asides and jokes, as looking "serious" and "sober-faced" during the interview at the Élysée Palace.
The magazine says Ms Trierweiler's book – Merci pour ce Moment (Thanks for the Moment) published last week – is a "300-page crime of passion". All 200,000 copies of the first print run sold out within days and more are being produced.
The book, described as a memoir, details Ms Trierweiler's (49) nine-year relationship with Mr Hollande (60), and their acrimonious split in January this year after he had an affair with actor Julie Gayet (42).
In it Ms Trierweiler says he mocked her family's modest background and referred with disdain to the poor as "sans dents".
Mr Hollande, whose popularity was rock bottom even before the book came out and whose Socialist government is facing a vote of confidence next week, said the damaging accusation was “a lie”.
" I don't want people to say or write that I make fun of people's suffering because that's a lie that hurts me," he said. – (Guardian service)