MUMBAI: Valerie Trierweiler, the ex-partner of French President Francois Hollande, arrived in India Monday on a charity mission despite an announcement two days earlier that the couple have split.

Trierweiler will promote a French charity in the financial hub Mumbai during the two-day trip, in her first public appearance since it emerged that Holland was having an affair with a French actress.

She arrived at Mumbai international airport on an Air France flight just after midnight from Paris for the mission organized by Action Against Hunger (Action Contre la Faim, ACF), despite no longer being France´s first lady.

Trierweiler, wearing a navy coat, did not speak with some 50 media gathered, and instead walked from the terminal building to a waiting car which was expected to take her to the luxury Taj Mahal hotel, an AFP reporter said.

Her entourage said she was accompanied on her India trip by a presidential bodyguard. A source close to her said: "She is on good terms with the president and she is better.

"Hollande, 59, told AFP on Saturday he has split with longstanding partner Trierweiler, 48, after press revelations two weeks ago of his affair with 41-year-old actress Julie Gayet.

Trierweiler was hospitalised for a week after news broke of Hollande´s involvement with Gayet, and she had since then been holed up in a presidential retreat outside Paris.

SOURCE: AFP