New Documentary enters into the World of the French President and His First Lady

Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Trogneux have raised eyebrows around the world — but not in France — for their relationship. They married in 2007. Picture: AFP PHOTO / Eric FEFERBERG

IT’S the love story that has captivated France — now the real dynamic between France’s youngest President and his wife has been revealed on film.

The documentary “Behind the Scenes of a Victory” aired in France this week following Emmanuel Macron’s historic win over the National Front’s Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s election.

It shows hours of political footage taken during seven months on the road cut down to 90 minutes including a rare insight into his private relationship with his wife, Brigitte Trogneaux, who is 24 years his senior.

The documentary shows her as a “protective, critical and ever-present” figure, The Times reports.

French President-elect Emmanuel Macron outside the Louvre with his wife Brigitte, 64.
Picture: AP Photo/Thibault Camus.Source:AP

Scenes reveal him asking for a chocolate before she intervenes saying, “I don’t want you to eat that rubbish” leading him to opt for water instead. 

It also shows him seeking her approval by asking how he did at a rally in Lyon that attracted 20,000 people. She replies: “Darling we’ll talk about that alone, you know that.”

Another moment shows him checking football scores and saying “that’s the “f****ing second time” his team has been beaten before being interrupted by Brigitte who says: “We don’t care about that.”

The relationship between the 39-year-old former investment banker and his former drama teacher has led to headlines around the world.

They met while he was 16 and she was married with three children. He later convinced her to leave his family for him in what some commentators have called a sign of his self-belief and assurance at a young age. They married in 2007.

While she has previously kept out of the spotlight, Trogneux has steadily become a greater part of his campaign — appearing on stage with him after he won the Presidency and tenderly kissing his hand.

“She’s a good looking 64” said one student watching, as chants of “Brigitte, Brigitte” rang out in front of the Louvre.

Ms Trogneaux opened up about their relationship in a documentary last year including the fact he told her at 16 he would marry her.

“He wasn’t like the others,” she said. “He wasn’t a teenager. He had a relationship of equals with other adults.”

“I didn’t think it would go very far …. I thought he would get bored. We wrote, and little by little I was totally overcome by the intelligence of this boy.

“We’d call each other all the time and spend hours on the phone,” she said.

“Bit by bit, he defeated all my resistance, in an amazing way, with patience.”

The documentary also includes the inside word on some of the most critical moments of the brutal French campaign.

At a Whirlpool factory visit where Mr Macron’s appearance was upstaged by Ms Le Pen meeting workers outside, it shows him telling his team he “can’t afford to be seen to be hiding” inside after being advised by security.

Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte Trogneux met when he was a student of hers in Amiens. Picture: AFP PHOTO / POOL / Eric FEFERBERGSource:AFP

Another scene shows him ordering a “cordon bleu” for lunch only to be told “that’s on the kids menu”.

Meanwhile Marine Le Pen’s niece Marion Marechal Le Pen, 27, announced she would “temporarily” quit politics to spend more time with her family.

It’s a massive blow for the family party as she is one of only two MPs and her grandfather Jean Marie called it a “desertion”.

“You know my story, you know I’ve been in this political world all my life. At 27 it is time for me to leave it for some time,” she wrote in an open letter to a newspaper.

“I am not giving up forever on this political battle.”

NOW, Let's Meet Brigitte Trogneux, the glamorous high-school teacher who is the wife of French President-elect Emmanuel Macron.

She is the youngest of six Trogneux children and her family are famous chocolatiers in the region of Amiens. Les Trogneux is famous for its macaroons.

There is a 24-year age gap between 64-year-old Trogneux and 39-year-old Macron.

Trogneux was Macron's drama and french teacher. They met at the Jésuites de la Providence lycée, in Amiens, when he was 15. Footage has emerged on social media of the pair sharing their "first kiss" (on the cheek) when he was a student and she was a married teacher.

Macron was reportedly packed off to Paris to finish his studies when news broke of his close bond with the married mother of three. Trogneux told Paris Match magazine that, at 17, Emmanuel told her: "Whatever you do, I will marry you."

In 1993, in the Providence Jesuit college where she taught French and drama, the young Macron acted in a play under her supervision. The next year, the two rewrote a play together, adapting it to include more roles.

"Little by little, I came totally under the spell of the intelligence of this young boy," Trogneux told France 3 TV.

Trogneux divorced her banker husband and father of her children, André-Louis Auzière, in 2006, and married Macron the following year.

In a November 2016 TV documentary on France 3,  just days after Macron declared his bid, the couple shared video footage of the youthful Macron in the school play at which they met, and footage of their 2007 wedding ceremony.

"Thanks for accepting us, a not quite normal couple," Macron is heard saying in a video of the ceremony, attended by Trogneux' then adult children. He was nearly 30, she 54.

French cartoonists and satirical radio and TV programs regularly mock the couple's age difference, portraying Macron as a schoolboy taking instructions from his teacher.

Trogneux, takes the mockery in her stride and has joked that if he wanted to run for president, he better do it soon, while she still looked presentable.

"He needs to go for it in 2017 because by 2022, his problem will be my face," she was quoted as telling a friend in Nico­las Pris­sette's book "Emma­nuel Macron en marche vers l’Élysée"

She has been by his side ever since.

Macron is stepfather to Trogneux's three children — two girls and a boy. Below, her daughters Thyphaine (left) and Laurence (right) at one of Macron's campaign rallies.

The age gap between the couple has been a source of fascination for local media.

But the couple have embraced the limelight.

They live together in Le Touquet, a commune near Boulogne-sur-Mer, in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. Below, Trogneux speaks with the press outside their home.

The pair are reportedly 'keen anglophiles.' Trogneux told the press: ‘We both absolutely love Britain, and make sure we visit every year ... We go to plays in London, but Emmanuel and I are great strollers too. We love to go on long walks through the city, and to speak to people. We love walking.'

They also appear to be keen skiers. Here, Trogneux and Macron smile for cameras as they take a chairlift up to the mountain top for a lunch break during a campaign visit to Bagneres-de-Bigorre, in the Pyrenees in Southwestern France.

At the top, the couple looked relaxed as they shared a bottle of wine with colleagues.

Trogneux is also known for her strong personal sense of style.

The future first lady is apparently a regular at Paris Fashion Week, but recently swapped the front row to support her husband in his presidential campaign.

According to Macron's biographer, Anne Fulda, the future president of France has only ever had one girlfriend of his own age — the only other relationship he has ever had, which she says is "quite exceptional today."

Trogneux is understood to be an important mentor to Macron. He said 'without her, I wouldn't be me,' after winning the first round of voting in April 2017.

Before this, Both were complete unknowns when Macron was appointed economy minister in Socialist President Francois Hollande's government in August 2014, Brigitte resigned from her teaching job a year later to help her ambitious young husband.

At the economy ministry, she was a discreet presence during meetings with officials in the modernist Bercy building by the Seine in eastern Paris.

"She spends a lot of time here because her view matters to me, because she brings a different atmosphere, that is important. My life is here, you cannot work well if you are not happy," Macron said in his last staff meeting after he resigned from the Hollande government in August 2016.

Trogneux cast her ballot during the second round of 2017 French presidential election in Le Touquet.

And she celebrated with Macron after early results in the first round of the 2017 French presidential election at the Parc des Expositions hall in Paris.

The crowd reportedly shouted 'Brigitte! Brigitte! Brigitte!' as she took to the stage with Macron to celebrate his landslide win on May 7 at a victory rally near the Louvre in Paris.

The couple were joined on stage by Trogneux's granddaughter 

For the final salute, they were joined by Trogneux's daughter from a first marriage and her granddaughter.

As she joined him on stage before the traditional national anthem, Trogneux kissed his hand.

Trogneux’s main areas of focus as first lady are expected to be education and working with disadvantaged and autistic children.

Asked about what role Trogneux would play at the Elysee if he were elected, Macron had said that he will propose that within the first weeks of his presidency a formal, albeit unremunerated, role is established for the French First Lady and that she will have her say in how that role is defined.

"She will have an existence, she will have a voice there, a view on things. She will be at my side, as she has always been, but she will also have a public role," he said.

It remains to be seen exactly how Trogneux's role as the first lady will play out, but one thing is for certain, we will be seeing a lot more of the former teacher.