SUNDAY DECEMBER 30, 2007 07:00 AM EST
Mother knows best: "My daughter is living a true love story," Carla Bruni's mother, Marisa Borini, tells France's Le Parisien for its front page Sunday, about the ex-supermodel's relationship with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Adds the potential mother-in-law: "I think that she could very well end up with Nicolas."
Earlier this month, Borini told Italian news outlets that her daughter had received a marital proposal from Sarkozy – with a New Year's acceptance deadline.
In Sunday's exclusive interview with Le Parisien, the self-described "very Italian mamma" apparently raised the stakes, saying she participated in pre-vacation discussions with the couple concerning how they envision Bruni's future role.
"If Carla becomes the first lady of France, she'll have to keep space and time for herself to write," says her mom. "She needs to write her poems, compose music, record her albums. The same with her other obligations she may have, she'll need to arrange her time."
As for Sarkozy, says the prospective mother-of-the-bride, "I think that the President of the Republic doesn't just see the beautiful girl in her and that he has great respect for her artistic side. We've already spoken about that together and he's totally in agreement."
Rumors of a Christmas Day engagement have flourished since Wednesday, when Bruni toured Luxor's Valley of the Kings wearing a previously unseen pink diamond solitaire ring on her left hand.
A Rapid Romance
Press speculation concerning the new adornment (estimated worth, $20,000) has only flourished since the couple disappeared behind a security shield, Thursday. (Security on the private vacation, enforced by Egyptian Army units, has been extreme and caused hospitalization of at least one French news agency staff photographer.)To say the couple's rapid romance has been a coup de foudre (stroke of lightning) is an understatement. The 52-year-old Sarkozy, divorced from his second wife Cecilia in mid-October, has been inseparable from Bruni, 39, since Nov. 23, when he met the former supermodel-turned-singer-songwriter at a Paris dinner party.
Very visibly involved in development of the couple's month-old relationship is her mother, who chaperoned their outings to Versailles and Disneyland Paris, as well as accompanied Sarkozy to the Vatican this month. Borini did not, however, join the twosome in Egypt, sources tell PEOPLE, and is currently caring for Bruni's 6-year old son Aurelian in the ski resort of Mergeve.
It is expected that Sarkozy and Bruni ("Sarkozni"?) will return from Cairo Monday before heading to the Alps to spend New Year's skiing with family.
Élysées Palace press officers have consistently refuse to comment on Sarkozy's personal life.
