Brigitte Macron Addresses Age Gap Between Her and French President Emmanuel Macron
Even before Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France, his relationship with wife Brigitte Macron has been the object of close scrutiny and an exhausting amount of ageism due to the fact that Brigitte is 24 years older than her husband. Although Emmanuel spoke out earlier this year about the double standard that makes his marriage a topic of discussion, as opposed to that of Donald and Melania Trump, who have the exact same age gap between them (but in reverse), Brigitte has stayed largely silent—until now.
In a new interview with French Elle, the French first lady reveals that she was putting her own happiness ahead of the rest of society’s opinions when she decided to pursue a relationship with Emmanuel, whom she met while teaching drama at his high school, according to Elle‘s translation. “There are times in your life where you need to make vital choices,” she said. “And for me, that was it. So, what has been said over the 20 years, it’s insignificant. Of course, we have breakfast together—me and my wrinkles, him with his youth—but it’s like that.”
The 64-year-old added: “If I did not make that choice, I would have missed out on my life. I had a lot of happiness with my children and, at the same time, felt I had to live ‘this love,’ as Prévert used to say, to be fully happy.” Of the increased speculation her 10-year marriage received throughout this year’s election, Brigitte said, “I ended by telling myself, OK, I do not take it well, but I have to deal with it. After, it will pass.”
Shortly after his election victory, Emmanuel, 39, spoke out against the misogyny he and Brigitte have endured, as well as the “rampant homophobia” inherent in speculation that he’s gay and his marriage is a sham. “If I had been 20 years older than my wife, nobody would have thought for a single second that I couldn’t be [an intimate partner],” he told Le Parisien. “It’s because she is 20 years older than me that lots of people say, ‘This relationship can’t be tenable.'”
Unfortunately, this isn’t the only sexist incident Brigitte Macron has had to deal with since entering the public eye alongside her husband. Earlier this summer, when the Trumps met up with the Macrons in France, President Trump interrupted his own conversation with Emmanuel to turn to Brigitte and offer his totally unsolicited opinions about her appearance, saying, “You’re in such good shape,” and then adding, “Beautiful.”
And just last week, Brigitte’s attempts to take a more active role in her husband’s administration were shot down when the French government decided not to give her an official political title, budget, or salary. Although some argued that elevating the first lady position from an honorary to an official one smelled a lot like nepotism, others believed that refusing to give Brigitte official powers was a misogynistic attempt to keep her in a subordinate role to her husband.
Related: Former French First Lady Carla Bruni on Her New Album, Brigitte Macron’s Figure, and Living In a Politics-Free Bubble
Brigitte Macron, Carla Bruni, and More: A Brief History of France’s First Ladies and Their Front-Row Affair with Fashion
First lady from 1969 until her husband’s death in 1974, Claude Pompidou—née Cahour—was instrumental in founding the Centre Georges Pompidou, the contemporary art museum in her husband’s name. A noted patron of the arts and avid fashion lover, she was also frequently spotted in the front row of shows like Chanel (pictured here, Spring 1979, with Bernadette Chirac, wife of then-Paris major Jacques Chirac) and palling around with designer Karl Lagerfeld.
In addition to her public support of the arts and fashion, Pompidou also experimented with her own looks, favoring ensembles by the likes of avant-garde designer Courrèges and Pierre Cardin and opting for then-scandalous pantsuits.
In addition to her devotion to fashion, Pompidou was also an art aficionado. She redecorated the Élysée Palace with contemporary, of-the-moment pieces; she and her husband regularly visited local galleries; and, a fan of the artist Yves Klein, she was also instrumental in negotiating the look of the Centre Georges Pompidou, which opened after her husband’s death.
Pompidou and Chirac, who would eventually become first lady herself, were frequently spotted at Chanel shows together—as here, at Fall 1985—up until Pompidou’s death in 2007.
Following Pompidou, Anne-Aymone Giscard D’Estaing, wife of president Valéry Giscard D’Estaing (1974-1981) picked up the mantle of fashion’s first lady. Though never as much of an insider as her predecessor—and far less the art fan, as she and her husband dismantled much of the Élysée Palace’s contemporary décor—she nevertheless frequented Givenchy shows. Here, she’s pictured with the designer Hubert de Givenchy himself, September 1997.
Though designer Jean-Louis Scherrer’s label has since closed up shop, it was a favorite of French politicians throughout the late 20th century; here, Giscard D’Estaing poses with the designer and his daughter, November 2005.
President from 1981 to 1995, François Mitterrand was the longest-serving president in French history. His wife, Danielle Mitterrand, focused primarily on human rights issues, pushing the role of first lady beyond its traditionally domestic bounds—yet she was no less chic for it, befriending designers like Yves Saint Laurent, pictured here in 1992.
Each first lady seems to have favored a particular French fashion legend—and for Mitterrand, that legend was Yves Saint Laurent. Here, she sits front-row at the label’s Spring 1986 couture show.
And while for Mitterrand, fashion week was less of a pressing concern than for predecessors like Claude Pompidou, she still frequently attended the most exclusive shows. Here, she embraces Pierre Bergé, business and romantic partner of Yves Saint Laurent, before the label’s Fall 1992 show.
After cutting her teeth in the front row as the first lady of Paris (her husband Jacques was the mayor for nearly 20 years, from 1977 to 1995), Bernadette Chirac ascended to first lady of France when Jacques was elected president in 1995. He was succeeded by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. From Dior to Chanel to Yves Saint Laurent, Chirac took in everything, with friend Claude Pompidou by her side. Here, Chirac is pictured with designer Yves Saint Laurent at the designer’s Musée des Arts de la Mode restrospective in Paris, May 1986.
As recently as Spring 2013, Chirac has been spotted in the front row, still posing with designer Karl Lagerfeld as if it’s 1985 all over again.
Cécilia Sarkozy married French president Nicolas Sarkozy in 1996; they divorced, causing quite the scandal in France, in 2007. (Sarkozy remarried, to the supermodel and singer Carla Bruni, the following year.) But despite her short reign as France’s first lady, Sarkozy nevertheless found a place in fashion; here, she’s front row with the late designer Sonia Rykiel at the Yves Saint Laurent Fall 1993 show.
After divorcing Cécilia, Nicolas Sarkozy remarried, wedding Carla Bruni, the French-Italian supermodel and singer who had walked many of the same runways at which she’d later sit front row. Here, she walks Chanel Spring 1989 during Paris Fashion Week, October 1988. (She didn’t marry Sarkozy until 2008.)
Bruni’s eye for fashion was among the most remarked of recent first ladies; arriving in London for a state dinner, she wore a Dior ensemble complete with a pillbox hat that, at the time, many noted for looking like a contemporary update on the Jackie Kennedy image of a first lady.
And, of course, the selfies—here, with Karlie Kloss, September 2016.
Though she never married president François Hollande, who presided over France from 2012 to 2017, Valérie Trierweiler nevertheless took up the front-row place of honor occupied by most first ladies. Here, she appears with designer Raf Simons, then of Dior, at the Dior Spring 2014 show.
Trierweiler and Hollande split in early 2014; later that year, she was nevertheless spotted at all the major shows, including Dior’s Fall 2014 couture show, here, where she sat alongside the Arnaults and actress Isabelle Huppert.
Incoming first lady Brigitte Trogneux, wife of president-elect Emmanuel Macron, already has the requisite front-row credibility befitting a first lady. Here, she sits front-row at Dior’s Fall 2015 couture show.
Trogneux is nearly 30 years Macron’s elder; as has been amply reported, she was a teacher at his high school and advised him on a play when he was a young drama student. They married in 2007; she’s still a teacher, albeit one who also lands coveted spots at fashion week—here, alongside actress Léa Seydoux at the Louis Vuitton Fall 2016 show.
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