Singer and former French first lady Carla Bruni has backed Emily Ratajkowski’s decision to writhe around in spaghetti while wearing nothing but her underwear in a new video saying: “It’s about being free.”

Model and actress Ratajkowski, 26, pours red wine on her chest in the Love magazine advent calendar video, in which she covers herself in spaghetti.

Ratajkowski has said her video felt “empowering”, saying that “personal choice is the core ideal in my concept of feminism”.

Bruni told Good Morning Britain: “I don’t know about feminism but certainly it’s about being free to do whatever.

“She can do whatever she wants, we’re in a democracy, it’s really empowering.”

But she joked: “I wonder about the sauce. The spaghetti’s OK but what about the sauce?”

Good Morning Britain co-host Piers Morgan,  who has hit out at Ratajkowski for saying she was being a feminist, replied: “I’ve never heard anyone be sexier when using the word sauce.”

Bruni joked of a mocked-up snap of Morgan wearing a dressing gown: “Do you work out? Is it your body? I think it’s very good fun!”

On other matters, Bruni said she was “a bit sorry” about Brexit.

“All of us in France, and also in Italy because I was born in Italy, are all very sorry about Brexit,” she said.

“I was personally a bit sorry about it but democracy is like that, some people voted for it and I respect it.”