He attained notoriety due to his involvement in several sex scandals. He served in that capacity until his resignation on 18 May , in the wake of an allegation that he had sexually assaulted a hotel maid ; the charges were later dismissed.
These accusations were seen as controversial in France, and prompted prominent conspiracy theories, as well as a debate on the role of the media in debating and determining a suspect's guilt ahead of conviction or legal proceedings having even been initiated. These legal cases led to him dropping out the French presidential election , where he had been the favorite to win the Socialist Party's nomination the party's eventual candidate, Francois Hollande , won the presidential election , [ 8 ] and put an end to Strauss-Kahn's nascent political career.
He then resumed his activities in the private sector, mainly advising governments on their sovereign debts. He is the son of lawyer Gilbert Strauss-Kahn.
He and his parents settled in Morocco in , but after the earthquake moved to Monaco , [ 11 ] where his father practised law. The family later [ when? Strauss-Kahn has been married four times and has five children. The marriage lasted sixteen years and produced three children β Vanessa , Marine , and Laurin β but ended in divorce.
Strauss-Kahn married his second wife, Brigitte Guillemette, a public relations executive, in His third wife married [ citation needed ] was Anne Sinclair , a popular French journalist and heiress, the granddaughter of art dealer Paul Rosenberg. This marriage barely survived Strauss-Kahn's tenure at the IMF and the highly publicized allegations of sexual assault in In , the press announced Sinclair and Strauss-Kahn's separation.
