Tiphaine Auziere, the daughter of French first lady Brigitte Macron, has spoken publicly for the first time about her mother's relationship with President Emmanuel Macron, which began when he was a teenager. In a television documentary aired on French state television, Ms Auziere, 34, described how the future president fell for her mother when he was just 15, attending a theatre workshop she ran at a Catholic secondary school in Amiens.
Ms Auziere, who was nine at the time, said: 'They were quite smitten and it was quite obvious between them and very difficult.' Her mother was 40 years old when the relationship began. The documentary explores the moment in 1994 when the 16-year-old Macron declared his love for his teacher.
Brigitte Macron, now 65, gave her blessing for the documentary but declined an interview. The programme quotes her as saying: 'I know that I hurt my children and it's the thing for which I most reproach myself but if I hadn't made that choice I would have missed out on my life.'
Macron's parents reportedly asked Mrs Macron to stop seeing him until he turned 18, but she replied: 'I can't promise you anything.' Her then-husband, Andre-Louis Auziere, left after learning of the affair with their daughter's classmate. Their divorce was not finalised for over a decade. Macron was sent to a finishing school in Paris, but the couple maintained a long-distance relationship for 13 years before he proposed.
Ms Auziere added: 'If I have to give a vision of love, it's Emmanuel and Mummy. When they are together, it is almost as if the world doesn't exist.'
