Wealthy widower fathered Rachida Dati's love child, court rules

A court has named a multi-millionaire casino boss as the father of the child of France’s first female justice minister, Rachida Dati, after a prolonged legal battle.

The glamorous Ms Dati, 48, a protégée of the former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, shocked the nation in 2009 by returning to work just days after giving birth and refusing to reveal the father's identity.

Speculation persisted even after she claimed it was Dominique Desseigne, 70, a friend of Mr Sarkozy.

Mr Desseigne, the head of the Lucien Barrière casino, restaurant and hotel group, denied that he was the father of Zohra, now five years old. He refused to take a DNA test and put forward the names of seven other men he claimed could have fathered the girl.

He acknowledged a brief affair with Ms Dati, who has been single since her divorce more than 20 years ago, but claimed he was in hospital when the child was conceived.

However, a court in Versailles ruled that there was enough evidence of the “credibility of the relationship”. Under French law, a court cannot force a man to take a paternity test but may interpret a refusal as indicating fatherhood.

The court ordered Mr Desseigne to pay child support of €2,500 (nearly £2,000) a month. Ms Dati, the mayor of the chic 7th arrondissement of Paris and an MEP, had asked for €6,000.

Mr Desseigne, a widower whose wealth is estimated at more than £500 million, will appeal against the decision, his lawyer said. He has two grown-up children.

Others who have at times been suspected of being the girl’s father include a TV presenter, a former Spanish prime minister, the heir to a luxury goods empire and Mr Sarkozy’s brother, according to Le Monde’s magazine, M.

Ms Dati’s rise from poverty to the upper echelons of French politics captured the imagination of the French public when the daughter of north African immigrants became justice minister in Mr Sarkozy’s "rainbow cabinet".