France's far-right presidential hopeful Jordan Bardella is in a relationship with Italian socialite Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, according to celebrity magazine Paris Match.
In what has all the hallmarks of a staged "scoop", this week's front page carries photographs of the couple taken recently on holiday in Corsica with the headline "The idyll that no-one expected."
Rumours of a love affair have been circulating since January when the pair were seen together at an event in Paris to mark the 200th anniversary of Le Figaro newspaper.
But the 30-year-old president of the Rassemblement National (RN) party has consistently deflected interview questions, saying that his private life was his "last space of liberty."
The Paris Match story suggests the decision has been taken to make the relationship official.
