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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Tim Dowling

The partners of world leaders stealing the show

Wacky leader partners: Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyam
Miyuki Hatoyama
Married to: Yukio Hatoyama
Wacky rating: Off the scale
This professional "life composer" claims she once flew on a triangle-shaped UFO to Venus, and says she met Tom Cruise in a past life when he was Japanese. Makes her own clothes from hemp
Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters
Wacky leader partners: Sarah Brown at the State Opening of Parliament 2008
Sarah Brown
Married to: Gordon Brown
Wacky rating: 1 out of 5

The very picture of common sense, British reserve and tireless discretion. May have married the only person in the world in contrast to whom she could be described as devil-may-care. And she picks out his ties for him
Photograph: Reuters
Wacky leader partners: Angela Merkel,  Joachim Sauer, Tony Blair, Cherie Blair 2007
Joachim Sauer (second from right)
Married to: Angela Merkel
Wacky rating: 0.1 out of 5
Quiet and reserved, Sauer rarely appears in public and didn’t even attend his wife’s 2005 inauguration. Holds certain views about the nature of the universe that most ordinary people would find incomprehensible, in keeping with his job as a quantum chemist. No pictures of him with Tom Cruise
Photograph: Michael Kappeller/AFP
Wacky leader partners: Michelle Obama meets Elmo on the set of Sesame Street
Michelle Obama
Married to: Barack Obama
Wacky rating: 1.5 out of 5

Consistently down-to-earth, even when interviewed by Oprah. No known new age proclivities. Like Miyuki Hatoyama, claims to have met Tom Cruise – but photographic evidence would appear to support this. Did not say if she thought he was weird
Photograph: Richard Termine/Sesame Workshop
Wacky leader partners: Carla Bruni promotional picture for her latest record
Carla Bruni
Married to: Nicolas Sarkozy
Wacky rating: 3 out of 5

Formerly given to pronouncements about being “bored by monogamy”, and claimed her husband had “five or six brains which are remarkably irrigated”, though she may not have meant it literally. The only G20 spouse (so far) to have nude photos and sex tapes stolen. Author of some decidedly flaky song lyrics (“I’m that time slipping by is a bastard making coats of our sorrow . . .
Photograph: Denis Rouvre
Wacky leader partners: Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Cherie Blair
Married to: Tony Blair
Wacky rating: 4 out of 5

The only G20 spouse, past or present, capable of giving Mrs Hatoyama a run for her mystical money. The crystal-pendant wearing, con-man consulting, magic-circle casting QC was said to have sought the help of the late Jack Templeton, a “homeopathic dowser healer” whose clients also numbered Jerry Hall and Princess Diana
Photograph: B Mathur/Reuters
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