A collaborative work that lasted over time
How the parents of France's president in waiting warned his teacher, 39, to end affair with their then 16-year-old son - but the married mother of three refused and now could be First Lady
On the first night of a play at school in Amiens, there was one obvious star: Emmanuel Macron, the son of two respected local doctors. The 16-year-old was adored by staff for his work and intelligence. One teacher beaming with admiration that night was glamorous 39-year-old Brigitte Auziere.
Married with three children, she taught at the school. The teacher and her pupil had collaborated on the play every Friday night for months at the school, adapting it for all the students who wanted parts. They would work on the script late into the night. Neither had far to go home -- the teacher to a house she shared nearby with her banker husband and children, while the pupil walked the short distance to his parents’ home in an affluent part of Amiens.
It was only when the play was staged, in front of proud parents and family, that a glimpse emerged of what was the start of a love affair between Emmanuel and Brigitte. As the audience clapped, Emmanuel took a bow and kissed the watching Madame Auziere on each cheek as she smiled with obvious delight. “Every Friday I went to write a play with her for several hours. We spoke about everything. I discovered we had always known one another,” the schoolboy later revealed.
As for Brigitte, whose eldest daughter, Laurence was in the same class as Emmanuel, she was captivated by his ‘exceptional intelligence’. She felt he was so gifted that it was as though “I was working with Mozart.” She even quizzed her daughter about her classmate, who told her he was bookish but engaging and charming, a man who ‘ knows everything’ and seemed older than his years.
Almost 24 years later, this unlikely romance made global headlines this week when pupil and teacher, now husband and wife, celebrated victory in the first round of the French elections. On a stage in Paris on Sunday night, Macron turned to thank his wife, who has given up teaching to help his campaign, and told her: “Always there, and what’s more, without whom I wouldn’t be me.” After that speech, he and Brigitte headed for the La Rotonde restaurant, where they celebrated. There, the oddity of his family was evident as the 39-yearold and his wife, now 64, hosted a party for close supporters. With them were Brigitte’s children, one of whom, son Sebastien, is two years older than his stepfather.
Also present at the party was Macron’s mother, Francoise, 67, who is three years older than her daughter-in-law, and who was bitterly opposed to her son’s relationship with his teacher. The prospect of such a close gathering seemed unlikely when the schoolboy and his teacher began their unconven- tional romance.
Local gossip about the ‘ close friendship’ between Emmanuel and the teacher spread after they were spotted walking home from school together after working on the play. Brigitte was always quick to praise Emmanuel. “She was captivated by his writing talents,’ one friend said. ‘He wrote poems and she read them out in front of everyone.”
Macron’s parents, a neurologist and a paediatrician, were not happy on hearing these rumours. Hoping it was just a passing teenage obsession, they decided to bide their time. But their suspicions intensified when Emmanuel told them he was going to see a friend in Amiens, only for them to discover he had spent time with Mme Auziere again.
They hoped he would start a relationship with a girl of their acquaintance who was his own age, whose parents were also doctors and friends with the Macrons, and even invited her over to the family home, where Emmanuel lived with his younger brother and sister. “I told myself it would pass,” his father Jean-Michel Macron said. But he showed no interest in the girl to whom they had introduced him, or in any of his teenage contemporaries.
Soon afterwards, Emannuel’s mother raised with her son the delicate issue of his relationship, concerned that he would never be able to have children due to the age gap. Macron’s parents decided to confront Brigitte and tell her to end the affair. At this uncomfortable meeting in Amiens, Francoise told Brigitte: ‘ You already have your life, [but] he won’t have children.’ In tears, the teacher sobbed that she ‘could not promise anything’.
At their wits’ end, and concerned that the relationship would ruin his schooling, Emmanuel’s parents sent their son away. The boy’s father telephoned the headmistress of a prestigious school in Paris called the Henry IV, and explained that he had a matter of great sensitivity to discuss, which would require absolute discretion. According to sources at the school, the headmistress agreed that Emmanuel could finish his schooling there and prepare for university in Paris, where he was to live in a flat owned by his family. At the same time, Mr. and Mrs. Macron decided not to complain to the police about the teacher’s relationship with their son. The age of consent is 15, but 18 for those involved with teachers or carers.
Yet the schemes of Emmanuel Macron’s parents were to end in failure -- and the romance continued after the teenager moved to Paris. He would take the 90-minute train home to Amiens each weekend, and tried to arrange secretly to meet Brigitte when she wasn’t looking after her children. Andre-Louis Auziere, Brigitte’s husband, worked long hours for an international French bank. Brigitte and Emmanuel would meet at one of her wealthy family’s homes.
Emmanuel’s troubles were nothing compared to those of Brigitte. The indulged youngest of six, she was born in 1953 into the Trogneux family, who for six generations had run their confectionery business in northern France. They made their fortune selling macaroons. Her father was a pillar of respectability, a regular churchgoer and a member of the local rotary club. Young Brigitte was a fun-loving, artistic child, who dreaded the thought of working in the family firm. Instead, she loved literature and the arts.
During a trip to the seaside town of Le Touquet, where her family had a holiday home, she met an exotic man called Andre- Louis Auziere, who was born in Cameroon, the French colony in west Africa, where his father worked as a diplomat. He had returned to France to study and had started what would prove a successful career in banking, which would later see him hold senior executive positions. At 23, he was two years older than Brigitte, who was still a student.
Brigitte, 21, and Andre married in the local town hall in 1974, the same year that Emmanuel’s parents were married, and by the time she was 26 she had three young children. She wanted for nothing financially.
By all accounts, family life was pleasant enough. In 1984, the couple moved with their children from Amiens to Strasbourg, when Andre got a promotion. They returned to Amiens in 1991, when, with the children now at school, Brigitte began teaching at La Providence.
By the time Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron had become emotionally entangled attempts to keep the news quiet had proven impossible. What her husband made of this is not clear: to this day, he has never spoken about the events that tore his family apart. Brigitte and Andre were formally divorced in 2006.
Brigitte moved to Paris before the divorce was finalised, where she took up a teaching position at another school.
By the time their son was 18, Emmanuel’s parents had given up trying to persuade him to find someone his age. Brigitte wed for a second time at the same town hall in Le Touquet where she married her first husband. She was 54; her groom, 29. The couple -- who call each other by the pet names ‘Manu’ and ‘Bibi’ -- now live in Paris. After a career as a banker and an economic minister, Macron announced his intention last year to stand as a candidate in the elections.
Macron is on good terms with his ‘ step- children’. The youngest daughter Tiphaine, 30, now works as a campaign manager for Macron. She says ‘ they get on so beautifully their age difference has never caused me a problem’.
So will any of this peculiarly French affair damage the candidate? There has always been a laissez-faire approach here to the sexual antics of politicians. Emmanuel Macron’s English teacher from his school in Paris, Christian Monjou, who remains a mentor, believes his decision to continue the relationship with Brigitte made him the man he is today. Certainly, Macron has no regrets about his teenaged coup de foudre. Time will soon tell if the people of France agree. (©Daily Mail, London)