'Country for one, sir? Will sir be ruling alone?'

NOT since Napoleon spent four solitary months between his divorce from Josephine and his marriage to Marie Louise has the leader of France been single.

Now, Nicolas Sarkozy (French president since May and a divorced man since October) is conducting a high-profile romance with former model Carla Bruni, whom he met in late November and, if reports are to be believed, may well marry at any moment.

Only four months after Sarkozy's divorce from ex-wife Cecilia, there are three new books out detailing their stormy marriage, mainly from Cecilia's hostile standpoint. Now persistent rumours claim that Bruni is already pregnant. You might think wedding bells and a baby after a courtship of barely two months is somewhat impulsive, but that would be underestimating the pressure on world leaders to be in a stable, preferably marital, relationship.

It's even more difficult to be an international political singleton than it is to be a normal, everyday one. Not only do you suffer the same stuff as ordinary singles – constant questions about your love life, or lack of it; problems with smug, married friends, relations and work colleagues; coping with the impossibility of eating a whole loaf of bread before the last crust goes off – but you have to suffer it in public.

It's tempting to think of Sarkozy as a Gallic version of Hugh Grant's prime minister character in Love, Actually, dancing alone around the Elysée Palace and lusting after the tea ladies, but for a newly single man, not long in charge of a world power, the past few months have probably been miserable.

His sudden singledom certainly hasn't won him any sympathy. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian president and single woman, believes that the electorate mistrust "a woman who doesn't have a husband" because they believe she "will not have anybody to keep her in check", and it looks like the same is true of a lone man in charge.

It's worth noting that there are hardly any single world leaders. Perhaps it's because whenever they turn up to international summits, the organisers say things like: "Country for one, sir? Will sir be ruling alone?" Then sit them in a draught, by the lavatories.

So if being single isn't much of an option for a self-respecting premier, the only alternative is to cultivate a relationship, but, perversely, if they should manage to find a significant other, the problems then get even worse. As Sarkozy has discovered, romance is a minefield for an international figure.

Whether or not he and Bruni have experienced love at first sight and can't wait to dash up the aisle, the pressure is on them to either ditch or hitch as soon as possible. The French have never been interested in their politicians' love lives and every moment the couple is seen to be dallying (or, as we civilians say, "getting to know each other"), Sarkozy is being criticised for not concentrating on his job.

Given the bad press he has endured for openly showing his feelings, I'm inclined to believe that Sarkozy is genuinely smitten with Bruni. But he hasn't the luxury of leaving things as they are. For a start, he currently has two big parties to go to. One is in India at the end of this month, then he's due to come to Britain in March. Like all diplomatic overtures, the invitations are not vaguely made out to "President Sarkozy plus one". In such elevated circles, the protocol is simple – it's the missus, or no-one. Neither India nor Britain want him to bring his girlfriend; in fact, that's pretty much forbidden.

The Indians are fretting about what to do if Bruni unexpectedly appears, but there's no way the Queen will let two lovebirds share a bed at Buckingham Palace (although the Windsors would probably turn a blind eye if they were both married to other people). Yet all these stresses and strains will magically disappear if Bruni can be presented as the wedded "Madame La Presidente".

This seems to me both mad and sad. The only way Sarkozy and Bruni can be officially sanctioned is by catapulting themselves into marriage only weeks after being introduced. It's frowned upon for a leader to be single, but the situation gets even more complicated if they start dating. Neither of these options is deemed as socially acceptable as living with the nightmare of an unhappy marriage, as Sarkozy was before his divorce.

But if I were Sarkozy, torn between curling up at night with Carla Bruni, or with a copy of Les Miserables, as single Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez does, I know what solution I'd propose.