Kevin De Bruyne and his wife, Michele Lacroix, attended Paris Fashion Week, joining a star-studded crowd at the Louvre as Louis Vuitton closed the event with Nicolas Ghesquiere's Spring/Summer 2027 collection.
The Manchester City legend was in Paris with the Belgian national team, who were playing France in the Nations League. He did not play in his country's 4-1 defeat because of suspension but still made the most of the trip.
A special place for the couple
The French capital holds a special place for De Bruyne and Lacroix, as they got engaged at the Eiffel Tower a decade ago. They met a couple of years earlier after a friend sent her a social media message on his behalf after she had liked one of his posts while he was on loan at Werder Bremen.
Their relationship subsequently flourished. They married in 2017 and have three children together.
Fashion choices at the Louvre
Opting for an understated all-black jacket and trousers ensemble, the Napoli playmaker sat alongside A-listers including Zendaya, Emma Stone, Ana de Armas, Pharrell Williams and Jaden Smith. Meanwhile, Lacroix donned a striking red skirt and black leather jacket.
From shy beginnings to a beautiful thing
For De Bruyne, it was a far cry from his early career when, by his own admission, he was a shy young man who struggled to build relationships with teammates and women. That is summed up by the manner in which he met Lacroix.
De Bruyne had dropped a post on X following a Bremen match, which was liked by his future wife. He initially thought little of it, only for a friend to urge him to slip into her DMs.
He told the Player's Tribune in 2019: "It started with a tweet. I only had a few thousand followers at the time, because I was still on loan at Werder Bremen."
"So I tweeted something about a match or whatever, and this pretty girl favourited it. I was single at the time, and my friend noticed it. So he said, 'She looks like a nice girl, no? You should send her a message.'"
"And I literally said to him, 'No, no, no. Come on. People don't like me. They don't get me. She won't respond.' So he grabbed my phone and started tapping out a message. He showed me the phone and said, 'Come on, can I hit send?'"
"I was probably on the floor, cringing, but for some reason I said, 'OK, fine, send it.' Says it all, no? I'm supposed to be this big footballer, and I didn't even have the heart to slide into my future wife's DMs! I didn't dare!"
"But thankfully, he sent the message for me, and she responded. We got to know each other over text for a few months. It's a lot easier for me once I get to know someone, so after that, I was good. It really was a beautiful thing."
The rest, as they say, is history. He added: "She changed my life in so many ways. Honestly, I don't know what I would do without her."
