‘Bribri’ hailed as the muse of French sixtysomethings
FOR thousands of French women, Brigitte Macron was just the first lady they had been waiting for – daring to be glamorous and seductive in her sixties.
Mrs Macron, 64, has smashed the record for the number of letters received by a president’s wife, with up to 200 people writing to the Elysée Palace every day requesting help on a variety of topics.
The previous record was held by her predecessor, Carla Bruni-sarkozy, who received around 35. According to Mrs Macron’s inner circle, a large number of letters come from women inspired by her relationship with husband Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who had his 40th birthday this month with his wife’s extended family in the Renaissance château of Chambord.
“Many women in their 60s or 70s write to Brigitte to say ‘thank you because I didn’t know it was possible’, ‘thank you because I didn’t dare wear that sort of dress’, ‘thank you for showing that one can still seduce at 65’,” her chief Elysée adviser, Pierre-olivier Costa, said. “We were incredibly surprised at the scale of requests for help from Brigitte Macron.”
Since her husband’s election in May, “Bribri mania” has swept France amid intense curiosity over the Macrons’ fusional, atypical relationship – their age gap, it has often been underlined, is roughly the reverse of the one between Donald and Melania Trump. France’s power couple met about 20 years ago when she taught drama at the secondary school he attended. The couple were married in 2007, a year after she divorced banker André-louis Auzière with whom she had three children. Speaking recently to Elle France, she said: “Of course, we have breakfast together, me and my wrinkles, him with his youth, but it’s like that. If I did not make that choice, I would have missed out on my life.”
The last seven months have not always been an easy ride. Notably, her husband’s efforts to end the grey area surrounding the role of the First Lady prompted 300,000 people to sign a petition against her having an official, paid role. “What is this medieval notion of a woman in a couple who says nothing?” said her chief aide. “Everyone knows from Napoleon to today around the world, head of states’ partners play a role. But we don’t know what it is and what they do.”
Besides accompanying her husband – the aim of her role was to be “tangibly useful” to the French on issues raised in the hundreds of letters she receives, which have given her the “impression that French society is on edge”.
During the presidential campaign, Mrs Macron was seen playing a handson role with her husband, attending meetings and coaching him for speeches he made.