News
French Presidential Candidate Emmanuel Macron & his Wife Brigitte have a Unique Love Story that has survived a 25-Year Age Difference, her being his Teacher & More
Every love story has its own unique tale of how the couple met. It is often such a sweet and aww-worthy story.
For France’s Presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, he first met his wife Brigitte when he was 15 years old and she was his teacher for drama class. Fast-forward some 24 years and Emmanuel is walking hand-in-hand with Brigitte, as his wife, after winning the first round of the French presidential election on the 24th of April, 2017.
On stage after his first victory, Emmanuel Macron – who did not even have a political party until starting the En Marche! movement a year ago – made sure to thank his wife Brigitte who reportedly has been his inspiration to run for office. Theirs’ is a love of great support so Emmanuel took the time to thank Brigitte while on stage, saying she is “always there, and what’s more, without whom I wouldn’t be me.”
It’s a unique story and it has been trending on social media all day.
Even though Brigitte’s family did not immediately approve of their relationship, the grandmother of seven and mother of three did not let that stop her. Neither did the 25-year age difference which caused quite the scandal in tabloids when their romance first started.
How did they fall in love?
According to an interview, Brigitte gave to Paris March, she and Emmanuel were working together on a play while she was his drama teacher and as a result, they were seeing each other once a week. Brigitte, who was at the time married to a banker, says that “Little by little, I was won over by his intelligence. I still haven’t measured all its depths. I felt myself falling. Him too…At 17, Emmanuel told me ‘Whatever you do, I will marry you’. Love carried everything with it and led me to divorce.”
In October 2007, Brigitte had been divorced from her banker husband for 21 months so she and Emmanuel who was 29-years old with the latter being 54, decided to get married.
They have now been together for 10 years and the love they have always shared is still very apparent.
Their love has been one of a strong partnership and according to reports Emmanuel Macron clearly values the support and wisdom of his wife.
The Independent UK reports that
“When he was a minister, she sat in on some of his meetings. Last month Mr. Macron confirmed that Brigitte would not – and had not – played a mere, passive supportive ‘wife of the candidate’ role. His wife would never just be “behind” him, he told supporters. “If I’m elected – no, sorry, when we are elected – she will be there, with a role and a place.”
While social media users currently have a lot to say about this unique love, one thing stays true – it is a love that is pure and filled with understanding.

Former French Economy Minister, Founder and Leader of the political movement ‘En Marche !’ and candidate for the 2017 French Presidential Election Emmanuel Macron (L) and his wife Brigitte Trogneux (R) attend the traditional dinner of the Crif, the representative council of the Jewish institutions of France in the Pullman Hotel at Montparnasse on February 22, 2017 in Paris, France.
Photo Credit: Getty Images/Vincent Isore/IP3 | Sylvain Lefevre | Chesnot
Me
April 26, 2017 at 1:13 am
Bloody joke. What is this world turning into. This is wrong and unromantic, imagine if the gender were reversed. Utter nonsense
Bella naija post my comment.
Cross
April 26, 2017 at 6:50 am
Who are you to decide what’s unromantic? Are you God or cupid?. Take a thousand seats because this world doesn’t revolve around you or your opinions
Bella
April 26, 2017 at 10:08 am
my dear thank you, what nonsense allow them have their love, are they harming you? why are you so bitter, love has no age and in this day of material things, they fell for each other for who they were!!
LemmeRant
April 26, 2017 at 11:07 am
As if you’re not the same people that will come for Emir Sanusi.
missnk
April 26, 2017 at 10:27 pm
it’s the same difference as Donald Trump and Melania but I didn’t see your outrage then…
FasholasLover
April 26, 2017 at 2:20 am
A Nigerian mother would have fasted the relationship scatter. If that did not scatter dem, she will go on the mountain, hire prophets and dibias. This is my opinion is a definition of enduring love.
TA
April 26, 2017 at 2:42 am
Any normal mother would resist this. You think his mother welcomed her home with hugs and kisses? Please!
Kamer sista
April 26, 2017 at 10:21 am
You’re right. I live in France and I can assure you that his mother herself testified how she tried for several years to end that relationship. She even told to that woman to leave her son alone…Mind you, the woman has a daughter of his age, who used to be in the same classroom as him…
So his mother, it has not been an easy story to swallow and she testified of this in the French newspaper recently. I personally think that till to date, she is not happy with the situation…But she eventually decided to let him have his ways and accept things as they are. Now she is just cordial with the wife…
arihan
May 4, 2017 at 3:48 pm
Ha ha ha h ha ha ha ha ha….
I am just imagining… hahahahaaaa
caramel chic
April 27, 2017 at 9:29 am
@Fasholaslover maybe that’s the problem with Nigerian Mothers. They are to engrossed in the lives of their children. Rather than living their own lives. They live through their children.
Kike
April 26, 2017 at 2:27 am
Oh Lord.Lol…. 25 years Ke…..!! Hmmmn. This love is truly blind….
LEM
April 26, 2017 at 2:37 am
Hmmm I wonder if their love would have been classified as ‘pure’ if their genders were reversed. Anyway what do I know.
June
April 26, 2017 at 2:41 am
BN, you do realize the French election is not over right? He is a favorite to win but as it stands France has not gone through their second round of voting. “Incoming President” is wrong reporting
Anon
April 26, 2017 at 2:53 am
Lazy reporting too.
Ada_ugo
April 26, 2017 at 10:31 am
I was wondering at that too. I kept re-reading the headline to see if I was missing something.
noni
April 26, 2017 at 11:07 am
Came to the comment section to say the same thing. 🙂 Lazy reporting for sure
Simi
April 26, 2017 at 11:26 am
I was so shocked by the headline, I had to open the story. Was wondering how I missed that news, why are my friends still campaigning and going to rallies.
Anon
April 26, 2017 at 2:52 am
French politicians especially their presidents tend to have a very colourful and salacious life. If he wins, he will be another one. Good thing is that their people don’t care.
French libertine
April 26, 2017 at 4:50 am
It’s not that they don’t care, it’s just that the right to privacy is a prerequisite, in France. But you are very right, French Presidents have been very promiscuous in their private life and well known to enjoy having mistresses on the side.
Francois Mitterand fathered a love child, Manzarine, with a long time mistress. Jacque Chirac had a senegalese mistress. Sarkozy slept with so many of his aides, some ministers (Rachida Dati who also slept with his brother).
Francois Holland is an unstable lover who does not want to settle with anyone, not even the mother of his 4 kids, Segolene Royal.
Ogbuefi
April 26, 2017 at 3:12 pm
Lol…. Paris is the city of love as they say,…You can’t afford not to fall in love in France; either head over heels OR heels over head.
BlueEyed
April 26, 2017 at 6:42 am
Yeah I was about to say the same thing, French politicians tend to have interesting love lives, and truly tabloids just talk about it but French people really don’t care.
OJ
April 26, 2017 at 5:09 am
If the genders were reversed, wont the man be referred to as a pedophile or that he was abusing his position of authority….anyway shaa, i guess dem dem women one way rule does not apply here
Susie
April 26, 2017 at 5:43 am
lmao but why must French Presidents always have such dramatic love lives? The previous one left his wife to gallivant with a woman who was still married only to leave her for a younger woman (whew that took a lot of energy just to recite!) and now here we are with one who is ready to marry his former teacher and grandma…. hmmm
Anyway I disagree with you @OJ The reverse (women marrying much older men & men who have previously been in authority) happens everyday & no one talks. It’s only news cos in this case it’s the woman whose the grandma. My own friend from secondary school married our former teacher a year after we graduated and no one said anything. Don’t forget that senators in our country are married to teenagers.
Kamer sista
April 26, 2017 at 10:34 am
Even worse, the curse was not married to the 1st woman to begin with. She is just what you call his (4) babies mama. And at the end of his reign, he offered her a position in the Gvt so they are working together lol. The previous one got a divorce few days after his election and remarried to a model few months later…Yes, it has been a mess at the top for few years now…
TeeW
April 26, 2017 at 7:11 am
Why are you guys against it. Did she “jazz” him to love her NO? It’s nature we get attracted to what we have no control over. Can Nigerians just try to let loose sometimes and enjoy life. There are many ways to things, it should not always be in one order. I’m sure she makes him feel better than any of his age group love interest ever did. Please you guys learn to live, even more “weirder” things happen in the world. This is beautiful to me.
DAME
April 26, 2017 at 8:38 am
I love this …though quite unusual !. For those saying if the genders were reversed…brings m,e to the story of celine dion and her husband ! Now that is also an amazing love story and you could see it in their relationship and the way she mourned him when he died > Everyone is entitled to fall in love whatever the uncanny situation might be.
Tru
April 26, 2017 at 10:04 am
?? Age ain’t nothing but a number…
emini
April 26, 2017 at 10:47 am
I said to my boss yesterday that this is totally unfair and selfish of the woman. She has lived her own life. now she is spending extra time on the boys own.
Moreover she walked out on the man who gave her “a happily married life” status in her first marriage without any consideration for him or his investments into her live.
As married people we all meet people who like us everyday and some of them even persist for years, will it be right to walk out on our partners who are so committed to us because one of our toasters have not stopped being interested in us for years.
The boy is disillusioned. he lived with grandma whom he held in high esteem and had her as his best teacher whom he always called even from home so after grandma passed it was only natural for him to replace grandma her with the other best woman.
what sort of discussion lead to romance between an adult and a child that teh teacher could not have stopped.
Janee
April 26, 2017 at 5:43 pm
Boy ke? He is 39 years old, a full grown man capable of making decisions for himself! Nigeriansss sha!
Simi
April 26, 2017 at 11:31 am
French people tend to think differently about love. You sort of take it wherever you find it. Life is short, life is to be lived, ladidah.
If you find love with a married or partnered person sef. And the person will pursue you without lying about current relationship status or the state of the relationship. Just ‘I think I like you’. No need for ‘I’m leaving her’ or ‘we have been struggling’
Voltron
April 26, 2017 at 11:39 am
If you check his background, I am sure you will discover he had a “Mummy issue”. That is, he probably never had a mother figure or was abused by his mother in what ever form. This has probably led to his desire for older women. Need I say that, the French are on the path of unwittingly electing a bedroom-child and a public-man. A sicko.
caramel chic
April 27, 2017 at 9:28 am
@Voltron not everyone’s life is as black and white like you ave narrated . Why do we struggle to accept the purity that love brings to two people. Can we just let love win.
yummymummycumchick
April 26, 2017 at 1:24 pm
a lil weird, alil creepy, a lil interesting, a lil unexplainable……. true that the heart knows what it wants
Omo Tinu
April 26, 2017 at 2:30 pm
I am 33 and my hubby is 63.
I can’t imagine loving someone else in my life and I can assure you that our relationship is unusual but solid, with love respect and reciprocity.
Sometimes when we are out, women especially look at us with funny faces but men always look us nicely like they wish they were in my hubby’s shoes.
My hubby who had been previously married, was never happy- in fact, his ex- wife abused him but since the last 10 years that we have been together he can re- live his life correctly in love and with love, peace of mind and better outlook on life.
People need to understand love knows no bounds, mature people also deserve love and it’s not always about cradle snatching the younger one or gold digging the older one.
Let’s be gentle in our judgement of others!
Arihan
May 4, 2017 at 2:58 pm
Respect …. Respect and Respect to your Love…….
Me also, Love someone who is senior than me..
you are right. Love has no bound
Nene
April 26, 2017 at 2:59 pm
Weird. If I have a son, I won’t let him marry a woman who’s as old as me
Arihan
May 4, 2017 at 2:56 pm
You can’t stop when he will be adult. 🙂
john
April 26, 2017 at 3:33 pm
i still dont know what to call this…mummy issues or Grandmother issues..I just dont know…pukes…Anyway, french presidents have always had some weird and creepy set of behaviours
Solaiman Sumon
September 18, 2019 at 9:50 am
What an excellent topic you have written . I appreciate you wonderful shared . I enjoyed it also .