TUNIS, Tunisia -- The 24-year marriage of President Habib Bourguiba, 83, and his 74-year-old second wife, Wassila Bent M'Hamed Ben Ammar, has ended in divorce, the government announced Monday.
The president's office announced that a Tunis court granted Bourguiba's request for a divorce and that it had ordered Mrs. Bourguiba not to use the title of 'Majda,' which means first lady.
The court said the title was revoked 'because of statements and positions taken in violation of the constitution and without the knowledge and the authorization of the president of the republic.'
Informed sources said this statement was intended to prevent Mrs. Bourguiba from speaking her mind publicly. In the past, she expressed her political views, sometimes critical of the government, to foreign news media.
Bourguiba divorced his first wife, a French woman named Mathilde Lorrain, to marry Ammar, a wealthy Tunisian Moslem divorcee. From their marriage in 1962, she took an interest in government and assumed considerable control over Tunisian politics in later years.
News of the divorce did not surprise political or diplomatic observers, because it was public knowledge that the president had not lived with his wife since the start of the year.
Bourguiba lives at the Carthage Palace while his wife is believed to live in Washington.
Bourguiba has been Tunisia's president since 1957, longer than any other elected Arab leader.