Hollande Condemns Ex-Girlfriend's Claims That He "Doesn't Like the Poor" (UPDATE)

France's President Francois Hollande hit back at ex-girlfriend Valerie Trierweiler's version in the kiss-and-tell book published last week, based on the couple's break-up.

In the book, the former first lady has portrayed Hollande as a cold, cynical cheat whose infidelity drove her to take a large dose of sleeping pills. But the "lie that hurts" Hollande is her claim that he "doesn't like the poor" and calls them the "sans dents" (toothless), The Guardian reports.

The President is afraid that people would think that he makes fun of their social hardship and added that the claim is "a blow to his entire life" and "a lie that wounds me", The Telegraph reports. He revealed his views in an exclusive interview with Le Nouvel Observateur to be published Thursday.

"I felt this attack on the poor, the dispossessed, as if it were a blow to my whole life. In all the posts I have held, I have only thought of helping, representing those who suffer. I have never been on the side of the powerful, even if I'm not their enemy, but I know where I come from," Hollande said.

Trierweiler's book - Merci pour ce Moment (Thanks for the Moment) - has been dubbed as a "300-page crime of passion". All 200,000 copies of the first print run sold out within a few days and more are being printed.

The book is a memoir, in which the 49-year-old journalist gives details of her nine-year relationship with Hollande (60), and the events that led to their bitter split in January, this year, after the media reported about his affair with actor Julie Gayet.

Trierweiler also stated in the book that Hollande had belittled her parents once only because they belonged to the working-class.   

Hollande further said: "You think I have forgotten from where I come? My maternal grandfather, a Savoyard tailor, lived with his family in a simple two-room flat in Paris. My paternal grandfather, a teacher, came from a poor rural family from northern France. And you think that I could despise the background in which I have my roots; that is my reason for being here."

According to BBC, he went on to say: "Yes, I have met people in difficult circumstances, ground down by life. They cannot afford to look after their teeth. It's a sign of the worst misery. These people I have been among, I have helped them and supported them."