French libertine Catherine M. shows jealous streak

PARIS (Reuters) - French writer Catherine Millet made her name with a memoir of her countless sexual flings, but it turns out she was as jealous as any faithful wife would be when she found out her husband was also having affairs.

Author of "The Sexual Life of Catherine M." which has sold over 2 million copies and been translated into more than 40 languages since being published in 2001, Millet is back with a new book called "Jour de Souffrance" ("Day of Suffering").

It is about a three-year crisis in her relationship with writer Jacques Henric, her partner of 36 years, triggered by her discovery of photos and notebooks about his sexual escapades.

"I suffered terribly because I was torn apart by a contradiction," Millet told Reuters on Tuesday at her Paris home, an airy house hidden at the back of a leafy courtyard and decorated with pictures of her, naked, taken by Henric.

"How could I have blamed him for behaving in exactly the same way that I had for so long?" said the 60-year-old author, whose history of orgies and casual sex with strangers in public places is luridly described in "The Sexual Life".

Millet is the editor of a contemporary art review, art press, and the publication of her sexually explicit memoir caused a stir in Paris intellectual circles. With her new book just out, she is once again all over the French papers -- including on the cover of one magazine where she appears naked.

Reflecting her tastes, her house is full of tomes on art and literature but also books with titles like "Forbidden Erotica". Avant-garde paintings vie for space with erotic statuettes.

NO MORE TABOOS

She said it had been much easier to write the first memoir, which is mostly about the mechanics of sex, than the follow-up. "Day of Suffering" does contain some frank sex talk, but it is mostly about the psychology of being sick with jealousy.

"I am far more reserved about my feelings than about my body," she said, her prim brown bob and modest purple v-neck contrasting with the explicit images of her all over the wall.

"I would like to shed all taboos and be capable of really talking about everything ... You might say that it's my project as a writer," she said.

Millet's jealousy caused her obsessively to imagine Henric having sex with other women. These images brought her sexual pleasure but also caused her so much pain she became hysterical.

But even though her husband's philandering hurt her, she remains faithful to her libertine credo.

"It did not change my sexual morality at all ... I continue to believe that everyone should enjoy sexual freedom ... For me, it's a moral issue in the sense that it's about respecting other individuals," she said.

Millet and Henric, who met when she was 24, are happy together. The crisis has been over for a few years, she said.

Her libertine days are over -- not because she made a conscious decision to stop but because she gradually detached herself, especially by writing "The Sexual Life".

"If I'd gone back into that world, I'd have had the impression I was living in a movie adaptation of my book ... It would have been like playing my own part which would have been quite unpleasant," she said.

"What you put in a book is what you leave behind, whether you want to or not."

(editing by Tim Pearce)