Sunday Story: A Political Fairy-tale

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Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron

It is one of the most unusual and unlikely modern romantic stories that prove the power of love. They are one of the world’s most intriguing political couples. The taboo-breaking, generation-spanning romance between Emmanuel Macron, President of France and his wife, Brigitte, 24 years his senior and his former drama teacher, has captivated people across the globe. The fascination with the woman, who left her first husband, father of her three children, for one of her students who would one day become the president of France, is endless.

When they got married in 2007, Brigitte was 54 and Emmanuel 29, then a financial whizkid whose name was starting to appear in newspapers. They got married in the same town hall in the seaside resort of Le Touquet where she had married Andre-Louis Auziere, a banker, 33 years earlier. She was just 21 that time.

When Brigitte met Macron, her son, Sebastien, was slightly older than him and Laurence the same age. But he has managed to forge a close relationship with them. Their other sibling, Tiphaine, six years younger than Macron, gets on well with the president, who appears delighted to play step-grandfather to their children.

It was audacious for a woman from the provincial petite bourgeoisie, educated by nuns to defy her family and popular morality to make a second life with a man 24 years younger. For Emmanuel too, his parents, alarmed by what they viewed as an inappropriate relationship with an older woman, swiftly packed him off to Paris to complete his studies, but he continued seeing Brigitte.

Today the world is acknowledging the welcome sight of Emmanuel with his bright smile and steel-blue eyes, hand in hand with Brigitte, as his loving wife, a woman he met at school when he was only 15 and vowed to marry one day. It is perfect political fairy tale.


The Town Hall in Le Touquet, at the northern border of France, where they got married





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