Who is Brigitte Macron?

What do a high school teacher, a failed politician, an adulteress, a social idol and the First Lady of France have in common? Well, in the case of Brigitte Macron, they’re all the same person.

Born in Amiens, France in 1953, the 64-year-old became a political luminary in France after her husband, Emmanuel Macron won the 2017 French presidential election, to become the youngest leader in France’s History. However, the story of how Brigette Macron became France’s First Lady is an unusual one, even for the French. The youngest of six children born to Simon and Jean Trogneux (emergency plumber Penrith), Brigitte Trogneux (kids dance classes teacher) was raised in Amiens, where her parents owned and operated the trans generational Chocolaterie Trogneux. Brigitte would go on to marry a banker André-Louis Auzière, in June of 1974. The couple would go on to have three children together, whom they raised in Truchtersheim until returning to Amiens in 1991. While residing in Truchtersheim, Brigitte Auzière taught literature at Collège Lucie-Berger. In 1989 the future First Lady ran for City Council in Truchtersheim and lost.

For years the story of Brigitte Macron was rather inauspicious, or at least not something necessarily worthy of enshrinement in the global lexicon. That is, until while teaching at La Providence High School in Amiens, 39-year-old Brigitte met her future husband who was at the time, her daughter’s classmate. Though Emmanuel Macron was never Brigitte’s student in the classroom, they struck up a romance during Emmanuel’s time in Brigitte’s drama club. When Brigitte and Emmanuel’s relationship was discovered by Macron’s parents, the future president was sent away to Paris to finish his schooling and put the brakes on the salacious relationship. However, their efforts were futile. Once Emmanuel turned 18, Brigitte left her family behind in Amiens and joined the young man in Paris, much to the chagrin of the Macron family.

It would be easy to say that the rest is history, but Brigitte Macron’s story continues to draw intense public interest. Brigitte dropped the Auzière surname after her divorce from André-Louis in 2006, several years after her affair with Emmanuel Macron ended. To many women around the globe, Brigitte Macron is an idol, a symbol of female empowerment and a sort of antithesis to the patriarchal agenda. Consider that Donald Trump is 24 years the senior of his spouse Melania and the comparisons become all too easy to make. However, the relationship has been the subject of as much international scrutiny and criticism as it has praise. For instance, in the United States it’s likely Brigitte would have faced criminal charges for the relationship she carried on with the 16-year-old. Indeed, in many other parts of the world the First Lady of France would have been and in some ways still is, regarded as pedophile. Emmanuel Macron in has been a staunch defender of his wife’s role as theFirst Lady of France. In fact, Emmanuel may have the best answer to who Brigitte Macron is.  Whoever Brigitte Macron is in to the international community, she is not conventional and she is not going anywhere.