Teacher, friend, lover… meet France’s incoming first lady who is 24 years older than husband

As Emmanuel Macron celebrated his victory over his opponent, Marine Le Pen, as the new president-elect of France on Sunday, he brought along his wife to the podium and made a mouthwatering confession: “Brigitte, always present, and even more now, without whom I would not be me,” the newly-elected president told the crowd.

He had made a similar confession just after winning the first round of voting back in April.

Before Brigitte met Macron, she was living a relatively conventional life with a firm career teaching French literature, Latin and drama. She was then married to Andre Louis Auziere, a banker, with whom she had three children.

The duo met 24 years ago when Macron, 15, was a drama student at a school in Amiens, northern France. His teacher then now happens to be his wife and France’s incoming first lady.

“Love took everything in its path and led me to divorce. It was impossible to resist him,” Trogneux told Paris Match magazine in 2016.

But that’s not the shocker, yet: Laurence Auzière, Brigitte’s daughter, happened to be Emmanuel’s classmate then. In fact when he started developing feelings for Brigitte, it was misconstrued as targeted towards Auziere until his parents found out what was actually transpiring.

Then she was 40, maddening gap between the two.

On finding out, Emmanuel’s parents didn’t hesitate to interfere to save their child from what could easily pass as child abuse. Brigitte was then asked to “stay away from him until he was 18.”

“I can’t promise anything,” she said, as recounted by Anne Fulda, a biographer.

A whole new level of “teacher’s pet” in school

“It seemed like it was love at first sight,” his former classmate told Le Parisien newspaper.

It’s understood the pair used to have long discussions together – and she would read his writing out to the class. “She used to recite his work all the time. She was totally captivated by his writing skills.”

Many years down the line, their affair has endured the test of time, with Brigitte rising through the ranks as a teacher/coach, lover, wife and now, the country’s first lady.

Got ‘engaged’ to Macron when he was 17

When rumours began to circulate about their relationship, the young Macron’s parents had no choice than to move him away to complete his education from a private Jesuit school in Amiens to the prestigious Lycee Henri IV in Paris.

When he left, young Macron had made known to Trogneux his intentions to marry her in the weirdest of ways.

“You cannot get rid of me. I will come back and I will marry you,” he told her.

And he was only 17 then!

The pair eventually married in 2007, when he was nearly 30 and she 54 years old.

“Thanks for accepting us, a not-quite-normal couple,” Macron had said in a video of the ceremony, attended by Trogneux’ then adult children.

Resigned from her teaching job to throw her full weight behind her husband

Macron resigned from her teaching job after her husband became the economy minister, and she became his trusted adviser, the BBC reports.

“She is credited with influencing his views on women in politics. He has promised that half of all the candidates running for his En Marche (On The Move) party in June’s National Assembly elections will be women.”

And Macrom has already made his intentions known with regards to formalizing the role of first lady.

“If I am elected – no, sorry, when we are elected – she will be there, with a role and a place,” he said In an interview with Vanity Fair.

Macron’s coach for life

In a documentary by France3 TV, Trogneux is depicted as Macron’s coach. In one of the scenes, she was seen guiding him through a practice run of a speech, cutting in to tell him to lift his voice.

“I have to pay attention to everything, do the maximum to protect him,” she told Paris Match.

Her ‘coaching’ role, however, continues, this time around, not just as a teacher/wife but also as a pillar of support to her husband in leading one of the world’s most developed countries.