OTTAWA -- Françoise Ducros sat beside her boss, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, on the flight from Prague to Paris last Friday. Hours earlier, Mr. Chrétien had refused to accept her resignation and now the two were engaged in a deep conversation about the difficult events of the past few days.

It was a discussion that would continue throughout the weekend and also involve Aline Chrétien, to whom Ms. Ducros is close and whose judgment she respects.

Yesterday, Ms. Ducros told Mr. Chrétien she didn't want to carry on. She resigned as his director of communications, a job she loved and had held for more than three years. The move came days after she sparked an international imbroglio by being overheard saying George W. Bush was a "moron."

Officials in the Prime Minister's office insist there was no pressure on her to leave. But it was a controversy that did not seem to be going away.

As well, this was to be a key week for the Prime Minister, with the Kyoto Protocol finally being debated in the House of Commons and Roy Romanow poised to release his long-awaited report on health care.

Ms. Ducros, pragmatic and fiercely loyal, did not want the controversy around her to detract from the boss's agenda. She said she felt resigning was the best thing to do for the Prime Minister and the government.

And so this is how Ms. Ducros, 40, found herself in the midst of one of life's ironies yesterday.

At home with one of her sisters and two close friends, and fielding telephone calls from cabinet ministers, MPs and colleagues, some of whom were in tears, Ms. Ducros was also trying to listen to a local CBC radio call-in show.

The topic? Career transitions.

A friend joked that she did not call the show because she clearly understood that "on-air was on-the-record" -- a little jab at the fact that the conversation in which she called Mr. Bush a moron was one that she believed was off-the-record and was not to be reported.

Those close to Ms. Ducros insist she was not pushed out of her job.

"She pushed it, and she insisted on it," a senior government official said. "It's something he [the Prime Minister] hates to do and something he did reluctantly."

Sources said yesterday that during the crisis, Mrs. Chrétien was one of the people whom Ms. Ducros turned to for advice because she respects her judgment. The two women have developed a close relationship.

The senior government official called the events of the past few days "unsettling."

"It just underscores the climate that we're in," he said. He said there is "an appetite for grief" at this time in which the Prime Minister is on his way out.

Clearly, Ms. Ducros has not lost her edge. Yesterday, a friend described her as "an upbeat Francie looking forward to Phase 2."

Phase 2 is the public service -- the place from which Ms. Ducros was plucked in 1993 by former Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin to serve in his office. She eventually became his executive assistant.

It has not been announced where she will land.

Ms. Ducros has a good relationship with Privy Council Clerk Alex Himelfarb, with whom she met on Sunday after returning from the NATO summit in Prague and the meetings in Paris.

Her husband, Ian Christie, is a senior bureaucrat with Indian Affairs, and her experience in the public service is vast and varied. After Mr. Tobin left to become Newfoundland Premier, Ms. Ducros joined Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stephane Dion as his executive assistant and worked hard to achieve the Clarity Act, which set the terms for any referendum on Quebec sovereignty.

Along the way, she has made enemies. Intelligent and capable, she can also be abrasive and has paid a price for her take-no-prisoners style and for being a tough woman in a tough business. Some men are intimidated by her style and don't know how to deal with her. Many in the Paul Martin camp do not like her because she fought back hard against them and their tactics. They gleefully spin stories about everything from her political judgment to her relationships with her co-workers.

During a particularly difficult time last year, insiders say Industry Minister Allan Rock complained to the Prime Minister that she was favouring Mr. Tobin.

Yesterday, however, her friends say she was touched by the support she received.

"She is an immensely skilled person. I think that what she has done, she has done with a lot of dignity and class," the senior government official said.