French President Francois Hollande says he is considering suing a magazine after it claimed he was having an affair with an actress.
Mr Hollande described the report as an "attack on the right to privacy".
The latest edition of the weekly tabloid Closer features seven pages of revelations and photos about his alleged affair with Julie Gayet.
Ms Gayet, 41, is an established television and cinema actress who has appeared in more than 50 films.
She once appeared in one of Mr Hollande's election campaign television adverts.
Rumours of their alleged relationship have been circulating on the internet for many months.
Last March, she filed a complaint with prosecutors in Paris against various bloggers and websites that were reporting on the rumours.
Her lawyer at the time said there was no basis to the claims. She has not yet commented on the latest developments.
Mr Hollande's official partner is Valerie Trierweiler, a journalist for whom he left fellow Socialist politician Segolene Royal, the mother of his four children.
Mr Hollande told the Agence France Presse news agency that he "like every other citizen has a right" to privacy.
In a statement issued personally rather than by his office, he said he was "looking into possible action, including legal action" against Closer.
But he does not deny the allegation of an affair, the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris points out.
The magazine's print edition came out on Friday and shows pictures it claims support rumours that the 59-year-old president routinely spends the night with Ms Gayet at a flat not far from the Elysee Palace.
The pictures purportedly show the pair arriving separately. Mr Hollande, wearing a helmet, is on a motorbike driven by a chauffeur.
The president's official partner is the journalist Valerie Trierweiler who lives with him at the Elysee palace
The magazine claims the president's bodyguard arrives the following morning to deliver croissants.
'Ship has sailed'
Closer magazine has run up against France's strict privacy laws - which make it a criminal offence to publish information about a person's private life without their express permission - in the past.
It incurred the wrath of the British royal family after publishing photos of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless on a private holiday in France in September 2012.
French political commentator Anne Elisabeth Moutet told the BBC the magazine was unlikely to have gone with the story about Mr Hollande's alleged affair "without being quite sure that they had something on it".
"And what's very interesting is that this was immediately picked up by one of the very respectable news magazines, Le Point," she said.
I was unlikely legal action could now suppress the story, Moutet added.
"That ship has sailed. I think it's now like in England and in America. I think the more he decides he doesn't want this to be reported, the more he will keep it in the news."c
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