Obama and Beyoncé Affair: Real Or Rumour, Why Revealed Now?

French media have been reporting rumours of an affair between Barack Obama and singer Beyoncé, this as an unaccompanied French president arrives in Washington, DC, for a state dinner following a recent private life scandal of his own.

The French paparazzo behind the Obama-Beyoncé rumour has since retracted his claims, which he made both in a Swiss daily newspaper and on French radio. The Washington Post, initially rumoured to be publishing the story, has denied working on any such scoop.
By James CREEDON

A French media firestorm has been circulating claims that Barack Obama and Beyonce are dangerously in love.

It came as Francois Hollande, France’s head of state and a well-known love cheat, arrived in America on an official state visit without his now-ex partner, Valérie Trierweiler.

Rumours of an affair between the American president and the superstar singer- both of whom are married- were first made on Europe 1 radio station this morning.

They led to denials from the Washington Post, who were said to be preparing to break the incredible story.

Kristine Coratti, director of communications for the newspaper, said: ‘I can tell you that it’s false’, adding ‘The Washington Post does not produce articles’ of this kind.

But Pascal Rostain, the photographer who last month took photographs of Mr Hollande secretly visiting a Paris love nest on the back of moped and wearing a crash helmet, spoke of the alleged relationship.

He said revelations of any kind of affair between Mr Obama, 52, and Beyonce, 32, would send shockwaves around the world.

Beyonce performed ‘America the Beautiful’ at Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and the pair are firm friends.

'You know, at this moment, in the United States, there’s something huge which is about to happen,’ Mr Rostain told interviewer Jean-Marc Morandini.

‘Indeed, it will come out tomorrow in the Washington Post. We cannot say that it is from the gutter press - a supposed liaison between President Barack Obama and Beyonce. I can assure you that the world will talk.’

Mr Rostain’s claims were reported by a range of respected media in France, including Le Figaro and Le Point.

Mr Rostain was the first to know for sure that Mr Hollande was cheating on his first lady, Valerie Trierwelier, with the actress, Julie Gayet.

Referring to Mr Obama and his wife Michelle, Mr Rostain said: ‘For the first time, there are still images or televised ones of the Obama couple becoming a bit distant.

‘One can legitimately pose questions. We were told the same thing by the pictures of Hollande and Trierweiler.’

Questioned about the Obama-Beyonce claims later today, Mr Rostain said they were a 'joke'.

The 20 year age gap between Mr Obama and Beyonce is almost the same as that between Mr Hollande, 59, and Ms Gayet, 41.

Mr Obama is a well-known fan of the singer, having invited her to perform at numerous occasions, including at Michelle’s 50th birthday party at the White House last month.

There have also been rumours of increasing tensions in the Obama marriage, although Beyonce’s marriage to rapper Jay Z, 44, is said to be rock solid.

In recent weeks an alleged affair between former president Bill Clinton and celebrity beauty Elizabeth Hurley turned out to be made up.

The unmarried Mr Hollande arrives in America unaccompanied after splitting up with Ms Trierweiler, although his affair with Ms Gayet is said to be ongoing back in France.

French Media Convinced Beyoncé and President Obama Are Having Affair [Updated] SEXPAND

Today in WHAT?????!!!!, a French photographer named Pascal Rostain claims that the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, is embroiled in a love affair with internationally famous pop star Beyoncé. Oh, and we're going to read about it in theWashington Post tomorrow.

The photographer's comments were published in highly reputable French newspaper Le Figaro. Rostain, who is friends with Carla Bruni and has won photo awards, told French journalist Jean-Marc Morandini:

"You know, at this time, the United States, there is something big that is happening… Besides, it'll go out tomorrow in the Washington Post, we can not say that it is the gutter press [reporting on an] alleged affair between President Barack Obama and Beyoncé. I can assure you that the world will talk about it."

The report has already been picked up by Gala, which is like the People magazine of France, and Gala is also reporting that President Obama and his wife Michelle Obama are heading for a divorce.

The timing of this accusation is curious: French President François Hollande is traveling to the United States this week to meet with President Obama, and the two just penned an op-ed piece about how France and the USA must maintain a close relationship for The Washington Post. But President Hollande's own personal life has been in the news lately, and as CNN explains:

Hollande leaves France amid sinking popularity ratings and swirling reports that he cheated on his partner of seven years with a younger movie actress. The former French first lady Valerie Trierweiler — whom Obama said in November he was looking forward to hosting — will not come to the White House now that Hollande has announced their split.

France's President says his private life is private, but he's not denying the affair. Now he will come to America solo for one of Washington's most tradition-bound events, where protocol dictates nearly everything and a slip-up could wind up offending a top ally.

Since Hollande's own affair is creating some tension in the White House, maybe this is the French media's way of creating an international distraction.

Obviously Rostain's comments are shocking, but Le Figaro makes the point of calling him a "filou" — a rogue, trickster or rascal — with a penchant for provocation. Still, the copy reads, "even when it's in provocation, there is always some truth in what he says." Rostain is not just close to Carla Bruni; he's also friends with Valérie Trierweiler — in fact, he allegedly loaned her his apartment when she needed to see François Hollande in private.

Meanwhile, the rumor is spreading. Quickly. This won't be the last we hear of it. Rostain puts it this way:

There are [photographs and] television images of the Obamas [in which they are] a little distant… It is legitimate to ask questions. We found the same thing [in images] between Holland and Trierweiler. Afterwards, there was the rumor. [Same] for Obama with Beyonce, for example. Just because it's a rumor doesn't mean that one should not go into the field to check. We should not forget Marilyn [Monroe] or Monica Lewinsky. You can be the president of the first world power — that doesn't make you any less a man.

So is this just a French guy smugly saying, "Hey, look, our President is not the only one who cheats?" Is the Illuminati behind this? And if this report is true: WHAT? How? Where? Where do either of them find the time?

Update, 11:10 a.m.: A spokesperson for The Washington Post says "it's definitely not true" that the paper is planning on running a story about Obama and Beyoncé.

Update, February 11: Figaro now reports that Pascal Rostain has backtracked AND retracted. He was joking. Zut.

The Obama-Beyoncé Affair Rumors, And Why The Stupidest Fake News Story Of The Week Still Matters

BY ALYSSA ROSENBERG ON FEBRUARY 10, 2014 AT 2:55 PM

http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2014/02/10/3272731/obama-beyonce/

You guys! They touched!

CREDIT: AP IMAGES/WIN MCNAMEE

This morning, the French newspaper Le Figaro made some waves ahead of the upcoming state dinner to mark French President François Hollande’s visit to the U.S., by publishing a story in which the photographer Pascal Rostain alleged that the Washington Post was preparing to publish a story suggesting that President Obama and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter were having an affair, and that President Obama and his wife Michelle were preparing to divorce. The story has since been rolled back: the Post has vigorously denied having such a piece in development, and Rostain seems to have acknowledged that the rumor he spread was some sort of attempt at humor.

I’m loath to give stories like this attention, or to give attention to people who try to elude responsibility for eluding stupid sentiments or innuendo by declaring that they were “just joking,” as if humor is a genre that has no standards whatsoever. But the substance of this particular rumor strikes me as interesting and important. The idea that Obama must be having an affair with Knowles-Carter comes from a significant and damaging idea: that men and women can’t be friends.

I’m not really sure what evidence was supposed to exist to support the idea that the Obamas’ marriage was cooling, that President Obama was infatuated with Knowles-Carter, or that she in any way reciprocated his supposed affection. Was it that the couples have done some socializing, and that Knowles-Carter has performed as part of both of Obama’s inaugurations? That Obama and Knowles-Carter’s heads have been captured in the same news wire shots, because we all know how candid photos magically capture the deepest secrets of our souls, rather than simply recording our random facial expressions? That Knowles-Carter is to our present moment what Prince was to the 1980s, and we are all inexorably succumbing to her sexual thrall?

Mostly, I think the rumor comes from the idea that heterosexual men and women are, on some genetic level, incapable of being friends. Nevermind that Knowles-Carter’s latest album is a raunchy celebration of marital love and sex that brings in her husband on a guest verse to attest to how much fun they have together. Nevermind that the Obamas seem perfectly happy together, and appear to enjoy the time they spend in each other’s company. It just seems impossible for some people to believe that President Obama could admire Knowles-Carter for her formidable talent while feeling no particular need to elbow her husband, Jay-Z, out of the picture. And according to this vision of gender relations, Knowles-Carter, presented with the leader of the free world, wouldn’t be able to resist getting her claws into him, no matter what her relationship to her husband has meant to her in the past.

It’s awful to think that relationships between men and women don’t involve any free will or ability to grasp complexity, but instead are subjected to biological and sexual determination. On a personal level, this sort of suspicion can curtail promising friendships between men and women, and risks poisoning marital and romantic relationships by making straight couples horribly anxious about each other’s opposite-gender friends. If all heterosexual women and all heterosexual men are constantly out to seduce each other, it’s hard to imagine double dating, or long-time couples building sustainable friendships with other couples.

And in mass media, it renders relationships between men and women awfully predictable, though in recent years, we’ve seen some valuable pushback in this area. One of the things that makes FX’s The Bridgestand out, despite other first season missteps, is the fact that it has managed to build two friendships and partnerships between men and women. Though even that show lacked the confidence to do so without putting up obvious barriers to romances between the couples, rather than simply trusting them to sell the value of their friendships and professional collaborations. Reporters Daniel Frye (Matthew Lillard) and Adriana Mendez (Emily Rios) aren’t a possible romantic pairing because she’s a lesbian, and Detectives Sonya Cross and Marco Ruiz seem unlikely to get together because of her presence somewhere on the autism spectrum.

Parks and Recreation has acted with more confidence in this space. It never made sense that overeager Parks Department employee Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and her libertarian boss, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) would have romantic sparks because their views of the world are too fundamentally different (as distinct from the kind of manufactured clashes that so often drive pop cultural couples together). But their canny observations of each other’s strengths and weaknesses have made Leslie and Ron formidable allies to each other,particularly when they’re helping each other succeed in their romantic relationships. Ron, rather than a member of Leslie’s family, ends up giving her away at her wedding to Ben Watt. And Leslie is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to protect Ron from his ex-wives when he’s trying to begin a romance with a woman who might finally be a match for him. Parks and Recreation and Leslie and Ron’s relationship would both be poorer if the show had given in to men-and-women-can’t-be-friends determinism.

So let’s root for Barack and Michelle Obama and Shawn Carter and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter to stay friends. I suppose it’ll move magazine covers to suggest that both couples stay in trouble. But it’s a lot more fun to imagine a world where the first couples of politics and popular music get to hang out, where Barack and Michelle get to give Jay-Z and Beyoncé parenting tips, where Malia and Sasha baby-sit Blue Ivy while all the adults hang out, where Barack asks Bey what he should do for Michelle on Valentine’s Day, and Jay-Z talks Michelle through what she might do when the Obamas leave the White House.