Why I felt I was too old to wed Macron, by Brigitte
FRANCE’S first lady was initially reluctant to marry Emmanuel Macron because he was 25 years younger than her and ‘might want children’, according to a friend.
And Brigitte Macron’s daughter, who was only nine when she learned of her mother’s affair with the future president, admitted that the situation was ‘very difficult’.
Retired teacher Mrs Macron, who is now 65, already had a husband and three children when she had an affair with Emmanuel, at the time her teenage pupil.
As their relationship progressed, Mr Macron, now 40, asked for her hand in marriage, but she initially told close friend Pascale Bourdel she felt too old.
‘One day, Brigitte said to me, “Emmanuel wants us to get married”,’ said Mrs Bourdel.
‘She was a little reluctant and I told her that I could not see why, and she said to me, “You do realise how old he is, and how old I am? Maybe he’ll want children”.’
Mrs Bourdel replied: ‘ So, Brigitte, you’re happy with him, choose happiness!’ The exchange was recounted in a new France 3 TV documentary called Brigitte Macron: A French Novel.
Mrs Macron would not be interviewed for the programme, but she is said to have sanctioned close friends and family to talk about her.
She is quoted in the film as saying: ‘I know that I hurt my children and it’s the thing for which I most reproach myself but if I hadn’t made that choice I would have missed out on my life.’
The Macrons ended up getting married in 2007 in the seaside town of Le Touquet in northern France, but not before causing extreme angst among those closest to them. Mrs Macron’s younger daughter, Tiphaine Auziere, now 34, told the documentary that she was nine when she learned of her mother’s affair.
‘They were quite smitten and it was quite obvious between them and very difficult,’ she said.
Mr Macron was only 16 when he declared his love for the then Mrs Auziere, his drama teacher.
Her first husband, Andre-Louis Auziere, moved out of the family home in Amiens, northern France, and went to live in Lille.
Mr Macron’s doctor parents asked Mrs Auziere to stop seeing him until he was 18 but she said, ‘I can’t promise you anything,’ according to the documentary. Instead, Mr Macron was sent to Paris to continue his education, and they continued seeing each until the Auzieres finally divorced.
Despite such trauma, Tiphaine Auziere said: ‘If I had to present a vision of love, it’s Emmanuel and Mummy. When they are together, it’s almost as if the world does not exist.’ In other recent interviews, Miss Auziere has called her mother a ‘remarkable warrior’, who gave Mr Macron a great deal of confidence.
As his teacher, she used to stand off stage and tell him ‘to raise his voice’, for example, said Miss Auziere. She added: ‘I had parents who did things intelligently… things were done gradually.
‘My dad and my mummy always took care to protect us, to not expose us and to manage things properly so that we suffered as little as possible.
‘My dad worked in Lille during the week and, I was with my mum when she went to see Emmanuel.’
Mr Macron has since said that his wife’s grandchildren – the young children of Tiphanie and her sister and brother – are ‘enough’ for him, and he does not regret not having any of his own.
Mrs Macron suffered a great deal of criticism in Amiens, where her family owned a chain of bakeries.