Carla Bruni, wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has defended posing nudê and claimed that talks about her 30 lovers were poetic licence - in fact she has only had around 15.In an interview to Paris Match , Carla defended posing nudê during her days on the international catwalk, claiming her behaviour was never as risque as pop stars like Madonna, who published authorised pictures of herself in the nudê in the infamous 1992 coffee table book Sêx .
Recalling her own nude photo shoots, Carla said: "I was never extravagant like Madonna can be! I was younger too and, above all, I was a model.
"My job was to wear clothes, it was different. I was not going to discuss dressing up."
The 40-year-old former Italian supermodel-turned-singer also tried desperately to pour cold water on her image as an international sêx symbol.
Before her marriage to 53-year-old President Nicolas Sarkozy in February, she dated a long list of high-profile celebrities including British rock stars Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton.
Laurent Fabius, France's Socialist former prime minister, was also among her conquests and she once boasted that she preferred "polyandry and polygamy" - many sêxual partners - to a husband or boyfriend.
Carla recently released an album in which she croons: I'm a child, in spite of my 40 years, in spite of my 30 lovers .
But when asked about her "30 lovers" she said: "It's for the rhyme! Thirty is better than 15! When I write a song, I don't recount my life precisely, but more the manner in which I see life.
