Brigitte Macron

Brigitte Macron was born Brigitte Marie-Claude Trogneux in Amiens, France. She was the youngest of six children[3] of Simone (née Pujol; 1910–1998) and Jean Trogneux (1909–1994), the owners of the five-generation Chocolaterie Trogneux,[4] founded in 1872 in Amiens.[5] The company, now known as Jean Trogneux,[6] is run by her nephew, Jean-Alexandre Trogneux.[4]

Brigitte Auzière taught literature at the Collège Lucie-Berger in Strasbourg in the 1980s.[7] By the 1990s, she was teaching French and Latin at Lycée la Providence, a Jesuit high school in Amiens.

It was at that high school that she and Emmanuel Macron first met.[8] He attended her literature classes, and she was in charge of the theatre class that he attended.[9] Their romance was not typical, as she was his senior by almost a quarter of a century, and Macron has described it as "a love often clandestine, often hidden, misunderstood by many before imposing itself".[10]

French President Emmanuel Macron kisses the hand of his wife Brigitte during a state welcome at the White House

In 1989, Brigitte Macron (then Auzière) unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the city council of Truchtersheim.[7] It was the only time she ran for office.[7]

In 2017, Brigitte Macron played an active role in her husband's presidential campaign; a top adviser was quoted as saying that "her presence is essential for him".[11] During his campaign, Emmanuel Macron stated that upon his winning of the French presidency, his wife would "have the role that she always had with [him], she will not be hidden".[12]

He proposed creating an official “first lady” title (as the spouse of the French president currently holds no official title) coming with their own staff, office and a personally allocated budget for their activities.[13] Following Macron's election as president, and a petition against his proposal that gathered more than 275,000 signatures, the French government announced that Brigitte Macron would not hold the official title of “first lady” and would not be allocated an official budget.[14] In an interview with French magazine Elle, she stated that a soon-to-be published transparency charter would clarify her “role and accompanying resources”, including the composition and size of her staff.[15]

On 22 June 1974, she married banker André-Louis Auzière, with whom she had three children, Sébastien Auzière, an engineer, Dr. Laurence Auzière-Jourdan, a cardiologist, and Tiphaine Auzière, a lawyer. They resided in Truchtersheim until 1991, when they moved to Amiens.[7] She, at the age of 40, met the 15-year-old Emmanuel Macron in La Providence High School in the year 1993,[16] where she was a teacher and he was a student and a classmate of her daughter Laurence.[17] She divorced Auzière in January 2006 and married Macron in October 2007.[18][19]

Macron caught the coronavirus over Christmas 2020, her office said on Saturday 9 January 2021, confirming press reports. She tested positive on 24 December 2020 but presented only light symptoms and was negative six days later. During that period, she stayed at the official presidential residence, the Élysée palace, while the president worked at another residence outside Paris. Her office said the information regarding her condition was not made public at the time as it had no impact on her public agenda. She had since made a full recovery, they added. [20]

• (in French) Charte de transparence relative au statut du conjoint du Chef de l’État, Presidency of the French Republic, 2017

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