Valerie Trierweiler was reported to police over the incident at the Paris café

Valerie Trierweiler was yesterday reported to police for slapping a man who asked her ironically: ‘How’s Francois Hollande?’

The 50-year-old former first lady of France, who is nicknamed ‘The Rottweiler’, was last year unceremoniously kicked out after President Hollande started seeing another woman behind her back.

Ms Trierweiler claimed she went into a severe depression over the affair between Mr Hollande and the TV actress Julie Gayet, 42, before writing a kiss-and-tell book.

Yesterday she was having a coffee in a café in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, where she once shared a home with her ex-boyfriend.

She got into a heated argument with the owner of the café, who adopted an ‘ironic tone’ as he asked Ms Trierweiler for ‘news’ about Mr Hollande.

The President is still seeing Ms Gayet, and is said to have stopped communicating with Ms Trierweiler because of the unpleasant things she wrote about him in her memoire.

RTL radio reported that the café owner had been discussing ‘Thank You For This Moment’, in which Ms Trierweiler portrays Mr Hollande as a lying philanderer.

She also says the Socialist politician is a champagne left-winger who secretly mocks the poor when he is with his rich friends.

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When the café owner refused to apologise for his remarks, Ms Trierweiler is understood to have slapped him in the face.

He reported the attack to police, complaining he was the victim of assault.

Ms Trierweiler was never married to Mr Hollande, and was said to have destroyed his earlier relationship with Segolene Royal, the mother of Mr Hollande’s four children.

Francois Hollande (right) and Ms Trierweiler together in happier times, when Hollande was running for president

Mr Hollande is still seeing TV actress Julie Gayet. His affair with her ended his relationship with Ms Trierweiler

There are also well documented claims that Ms Trierweiler once shared Mr Hollande’s affections with a right-wing politician, Patrick Devedjian, who was married at the time.

Ms Trierweiler is also notorious for her short temper, and has been accused of using violence in the past.

In September, the divorcee was seen slapping the face of the ex-wife of Finance Minister Michel Sapin, after scratching her face and pulling her hair in a late night bar.

Ms Trierweiler was also rumoured to have gone on a rampage in the Elysee Palace after learning of Mr Hollande’s infidelity with Ms Gayet, smashing up more than £2.5million worth of vases, clocks and paintings, all part of France’s national heritage.

Ms Trieweiler, a Paris Match political affairs writer who is said to have earned more than a million pounds for her book, denied the vandalism accusations, but had no immediate comment on today’s revelations.

Since leaving the Elysee she has been working extremely hard to improve her public image, but remains extremely unpopular in France.