He’s 39; she is 64 and could soon be first lady
THE relationship between Emmanuel Macron, hotly tipped to become France’s next president tomorrow, and his wife Brigitte, is an intriguing one, even by French standards.
The pair, who have been married for 10 years, met when he was a schoolboy of 15. She was 39 – the same age he is now – and married with three children.
Before long, with him 16, they were starring in a drama of their own, having fallen head over heels in love. Not even the fact that Brigitte’s own daughter was a classmate of Emmanuel’s dampened their passion.
Their families, naturally, disapproved. Macron’s mother begs Brigitte to give up her son so that he can have a normal life, and a chance of having children. She tearfully insists she cannot.
Now 64, Brigitte cuts a remarkable figure alongside her youthful groom. Slim, stylish – in the way that only French women can be – she remains alluring despite, or perhaps because of, the lines on her face.
Their paths first crossed at an exclusive Catholic school in Amiens, where he was a star pupil and she a teacher. Together they collaborated on an adaptation of a play.
Quite understandably, people would have been repulsed by the idea of a male teacher falling for a teenage schoolgirl. It would have been seen as a grotesque abuse of power, inexcusable predatory behaviour. So why, when the roles are reversed as they are with the Macrons, is the relationship somehow seen as less scandalous? Because there is surely no greater abuse of power than a teacher seducing – or allowing themselves to be seduced by – an under-age pupil.
Some commentators have even praised the Macrons for having a relationship based on intellectual equality rather than narrow precepts such as age.
But a person about 40 years of age and with three children, was a strange proposition for a boy of 16 at the time. For teacher Brigitte to engage in a relationship with pupil Emmanuel at that time was not just risqué, it was regarded as downright weird. – Daily Mail.