The French election has come down to a runoff between Emmanuel Macron and Marine le Pen. The French establishment is uniting behind Macron, who is considered a mainstream figure. In one respect, though, his history is odd: he is married to one of his high school teachers, who was a married mother of three when they met. The Sun has the story, with the headline: “How French election front runner Emmanuel Macron, 39, seduced gran, 64, who he fell for at FIFTEEN.”
The dapper 39-year-old faces a run-off against far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen next month — and if he wins his first lady will be a 64-year-old gran of seven.
He first fell for his now wife Brigitte at 15, when she was his 39-year-old drama teacher.
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Brigitte, whose son Sebastien is two years older than Emmanuel, and whose eldest daughter Laurence is the same age, ran the school theatre club where Emmanuel was a budding actor.
Macron’s family initially was horrified, but love, apparently, conquered all.
New York Magazine has a more “sophisticated” take:
In a story that would likely sink a candidate’s chances in a more uptight country (uh, here), the 39-year-old Macron first met his 64-year-old wife, Brigitte Trogneux, when he was 15. More specifically, she was a drama teacher and he was playing the lead role in the school’s adaptation of the Milan Kundera play, Jacques and His Master.
The Macrons’ story is disturbingly similar to a long series of news stories here in the U.S., in which female teachers in their 30s and 40s have had improper relationships with teenage boys. These stories have prompted a lot of controversy, but New York Magazine thinks there is nothing to see here:
In a recently published book, Macron is reportedly quoted as saying, “Nobody would call it unusual if the age difference was reversed” — and, well, he does have a point.
The link goes to a photo of Donald and Melania Trump. Ha ha, we get the joke. Donald is 24 years older than Melania. But the point is stupid: when they met, Melania wasn’t 15, she was 28. There is no parallel at all. On the contrary, if a 39-year-old Donald Trump had seduced a 15-year-old girl, he might have gone to prison.
What does it all mean? Probably nothing. But it is interesting that the most middle-of-the-road candidate surviving in the French election has a rather eccentric history.
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