Brigitte's romance with schoolboy Macron (15) 'a vision of love'

'Everyone could see that the married teacher had fallen in love with her precocious and ambitious 15-year-old pupil', said Tiphaine Auziére, daughter of Ms Macron. Photo: Getty Images

Rory Mulholland

June 15 2018 02:30 AM

Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron were a "vision of love", according to the French first lady's daughter, who has described how she watched her teacher-mother fall for her teenage pupil.

Tiphaine Auzière (34) has spoken in a television documentary for the first time about the love affair between her mother and the future president of France that began in the city of Amiens in the 1990s.

Ms Auzière, the youngest of Ms Macron's children from her first marriage, described in the programme how everyone could see that the married teacher had fallen in love with her precocious and ambitious 15-year-old pupil.

Ms Auzière was nine years old at the time.

"They were quite smitten and it was quite obvious between them and very difficult," she said.

'Brigitte Macron: A French Novel', which cements her image as the president's mentor and muse, was broadcast on Wednesday, a year after she moved to the Elysée when her husband was elected president.

Ms Macron (65) declined to be interviewed but the documentary's director, Virginie Linhart, said she had given her blessing to the 90-minute film, which provides the first insider family account of what started out as a very controversial high-school love affair.

Ms Auzière said in the documentary that the first time she ever heard of Emmanuel Macron was when her older sister Laurence came home from her Catholic school and said: "Mummy, there is a crazy boy in our class who knows everything about everything."

Brigitte Macron was in turmoil when Emmanuel declared his love for her when he was 16 years old, according to the film, which said his parents asked her to stop seeing their son until he turned 18.

"I can't promise you anything," she is quoted as saying in the film.

Her then husband, André-Louis Auzière, left the family home and moved to the city of Lille when he discovered that his wife was having an affair with his daughter's classmate.

Emmanuel was sent to finish school in Paris, but the pair maintained their relationship for the next 13 years at a distance until they married in 2007.

'Brigitte Macron: A French Novel' reinforces the image of the presidential couple as entirely devoted to each other.

"If I have to give a vision of love, it's Emmanuel and mum," said Ms Auzière. "When they are together, it is almost as if the world doesn't exist."

A biography of Ms Macron published earlier this year claimed that at the time Mr Macron wrote an erotic novel based on their romance, but the novel was never published and the president has not confirmed that he authored such a book. (© Daily Telegraph London)