Bernadette Chirac, the dedicated and determined former first lady of France, has died at the age of 93. She stood by her late husband, former French President Jacques Chirac, during his 12-year tenure, but also forged her own discreet political career.
A Life of Dedication
Quiet, traditionally Roman Catholic, and always immaculately dressed in classic suits with styled hair, Bernadette devoted herself to the career of the man she married at age 22. Jacques Chirac passed away on September 26, 2019, at 86, having served as president from 1995 to 2007.
In his memoirs, Jacques Chirac wrote: "She is the woman of my life, we have accomplished so much together." Current President Emmanuel Macron noted that Bernadette Chirac "changed so many lives with discretion and determination" and "left her mark on our history." Nicolas Sarkozy, Chirac's successor and protégé, added: "An era comes to an end with her passing. I feel, like so many French people, a deep nostalgia."
Early Life and Marriage
The couple met at Sciences Po in Paris in 1954 and married two years later. The match was considered below Bernadette's social rank; she was born on May 18, 1933, into the aristocratic Chodron de Courcel family. The marriage produced two daughters but was not always easy, as Chirac publicly admitted to a weakness for women and rumors of affairs abounded.
In her 2001 book "Conversation," Bernadette spoke candidly about her Catholic faith, opposition to abortion, and the challenges of a husband's infidelity. She described Jacques as a "handsome man" with "enormous success with women," and wrote: "Nowadays at the first difficulty people just give up. But as far as I was concerned, I hesitated because I had children, and also because I was the prisoner of certain family traditions. Convention had it that in this sort of situation you put up a front and just kept going. In any case I warned him often enough: the day Napoleon left Josephine, he lost everything."
Political Role and Public Image
Jacques Chirac was elected president in 1995 and re-elected in 2002, making him France's second longest-serving president after François Mitterrand. Bernadette described herself as a mere "wagon" hitched to her powerhouse "engine" spouse, while he called her a "turtle" for her determined and sometimes authoritarian nature. She was seen as an electoral asset, with her cheerful personality and charity work for sick children boosting her image, and her conservatism reassuring right-wing voters.
Her discretion and immaculate appearance made her something of an icon. In 2023, French screen legend Catherine Deneuve starred in a film about her years as first lady, titled simply "Bernadette."
Political Career and Later Life
Beyond being patron of several charities, Bernadette carved out her own modest political career as a long-time elected councillor for the couple's rural home department of Corrèze and a member of the municipal council of the village of Sarran. In later years, she closely guarded information about Chirac's deteriorating health from a degenerative neurological disorder that confined him to a wheelchair.
She lived to see her husband become the first French president convicted for graft, receiving a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for syphoning public money to pay political party workers while mayor of Paris. After his death, Bernadette, then in frail health, attended a private funeral service but not the main ceremony attended by dozens of world leaders. In 2016, their eldest daughter Laurence died at 58 from a heart attack, after suffering from anorexia since 1974.
