Bernadette Chirac would never have believed that Jacques Chirac would become President of the Republic when she married him. Moreover, when he revealed his political ambitions, his wife’s father became furious…
Bernadette Chirac, who died on June 5 at the age of 93, did not know that she would one day become first lady by marrying Jacques Chirac. This native of a bourgeois family had fallen under his spell while they were both studying at Sciences Po, but he had barely spoken to her about his political ambitions…
Bernadette Chirac: her father against her marriage? “He didn’t speak to us anymore…”
For Bernadette Chirac, her husband had a clear future… but not in politics! So, Bernadette Chodron de Corcel, her maiden name, was surprised to say the least when her husband revealed to her that he wanted to get started. “I didn’t expect him to go into politics. When he told me about it, it was a discovery for me since after the ENA, he would normally have a career as a high-ranking civil servant, as a magistrate at the Court of Auditors. The path was clearly mapped out, but politics had not been discussed.” she said in the book Conversation with Patrick de Carolis, released in 2001.
And the one who interrupted her studies without graduating was far from delighted by her husband’s announcement: “His decision was like a cold shower on me.” Line Renaud’s friend was not the only one to be disappointed by this new career prospect since her father, a career soldier and commercial director of the “Jean-Félix Bapterosses et Cie” factories, took the news very badly.
“As Dad said, ‘politics really weren’t in the marriage contract’! He didn’t speak to us for six months. It was quite a difficult time“, recalled Bernadette Chirac before adding that her couple “swayed” A little “at that moment“.
Bernadette Chirac: “I guessed that my husband was going to escape me”
In addition, the wife of Jacques Chirac, whose funeral will take place this June 12 at the Sainte-Clotilde basilica in Paris, knew that the latter’s political ambitions would weaken their marriage and that she would end up feeling abandoned. “I guessed that by embarking on this path, my husband would escape from me, that he would be gone all the time, constantly in demand. I wasn’t much wrong.” she confided. But the one who remained first lady from 1995 to 2007 had little to say.
Bernadette Chirac used to take it in silence during this marriage. In particular, she had to endure her husband’s infidelities, which were certainly even more numerous due to his political status. “At first it was hard and then I got used to it. I was told that this was the rule and that it had to be accepted with as much dignity as possible.“, she explained in the documentary Bernadette Chirac, memory of a free woman. And added, resignedly: “All men who have power or a very large fortune attract women“.
