French female justice minister Rachida Dati 'had eight boyfriends when she fell pregnant with love child'

France's first female justice minister was seeing up to eight boyfriends at around the time she had a love child, it was claimed today.



Revelations about Rachida Dati's extraordinarily busy love life have emerged in a bitter row about the paternity of the 47-year-old's daughter.



Multi-millionaire businessman Dominique Desseigne, 68, is refusing to take a DNA test after being accused of being the girl's father.

Bitter battle: Dominique Desseigne, right, is refusing to take a paternity test to determine whether he is the father of Rachida Dati's daughter. Desseigne's lawyers claims that Dati, left, was involved with eight men when she had a love child



Ms Dati has gone to court to try and get him to admit that he fathered Zohra, now three, during a passionate encounter in 2008.

But Mr Desseigne tells this weekend's M, the Le Monde magazine, that he was one of many who had an 'adventure' with Ms Dati, and that he 'does not know' if he is Zohra's father. Moreover, his lawyers have suggested in written evidence that she was involved in 'up to eight relationships'

at the time.

These included 'a TV host, a minister, a chief executive office, a Spanish prime minister, a brother of Nicolas Sarkozy, a Qatari Attorney General and the heir to a luxury goods empire,' says the M article.



Mr Desseigne has now refused an application made by Ms Dati at a court in Versailles, near Paris, to submit to a test, M reveals.



According to French law, anybody approached for a test can say no, although Ms Dati is said to have other proof, including sworn statements from her staff that Mr Desseigne constantly visited 'their'

child soon after she was born.



Those suspected of being Zohra's father in the past have included a range of public figures, ranging from former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Anzar to former French president Mr Sarkozy.

Glamorous: Rachida Dati, France's first female justice minister, was sacked from Sarkozy's cabinet in 2009



Suspects: Former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Anzar, left, and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, right, have also been named as the possible father of Ms Dati's three-year-old daughter



Ms Dati, a notorious self-publicist, encouraged the speculation in a range of interviews in magazines like Paris Match, in which she also appeared in glamorous photo shoots.

The latest revelations will further the reputation of French politicians, and other public figures, as philandering adulterers who never stop having illicit sex.



Last month it emerged that Valerie Trierweiler, the current first lady, was at one stage the mistress of both Francois Hollande, the future Socialist president, and Patrick Devedjiana, conservative minister.



All three involved, including Ms Trierweiler, were married or in long term relationships at the time.



Ms Dati, who comes from a North African immigrant background and who has one failed marriage behind her, has been single since her early 20s. She became the star of Mr Sarkozy's ethnically diverse 'rainbow cabinet' in 2007 in an attempt to get minorities into government, but was unceremoniously sacked in 2009 when it was claimed she was not up to the job.



Mr Desseigne, who is worth more than £500 million, was a close business ally of the Mr Sarkozy.The former president famously celebrated his election win in Le Fouquet's, a chic restaurant on the Champs Elysee which Mr Desseigne owns.



Mr Desseigne has two grown up children from his marriage to his late wife Diane Barriere-Desseigne, who died in 2001.

