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On Monday morning, a video emerged showing Brigitte Macron sharply pushing her husband, French President Emmanuel Macron, upon their arrival in Vietnam. This shocking moment became the latest episode in a relationship that has been marked by controversy from the very start.

Macron was only 15 years old—the age of consent in France—when he met Madame Brigitte Auzière, a 39-year-old schoolteacher, in 1993 at the Catholic high school La Providence in Amiens. He was also a classmate of her eldest daughter, Laurence.

“At 15, Macron had the maturity of a 25-year-old,” recalled his former gym teacher, Daniel Lelièvre, as reported by Bloomberg. “He preferred talking to teachers rather than classmates.”

Brigitte’s family discovered their relationship in the summer of 1994 when they caught the pair sunbathing by the pool at the home of Brigitte’s elderly parents, according to Brigitte Macron: A Woman Without Limits by Maël Brun.

The relationship between the star pupil and his literature and drama teacher sparked outrage. Locals sent anonymous letters condemning the affair to the chocolate and macaroon factory owned by Brigitte’s family. Neighbors, friends, and critics went so far as to spit on the future First Lady’s door.

“Her friends, with whom she had planned a vacation, cut off contact,” she wrote.

Later, Emmanuel reflected on their early romance, saying, “We talked about everything. And I realized we had always known each other,” according to the Daily Mail.

At the time, Brigitte was married to banker André-Louis Auzière and had three children. Auzière described learning about his wife’s feelings for a teenager as “a slap in the face,” writes Brun. Their divorce took ten years to finalize.

Emmanuel left Amiens to attend a prestigious Parisian school for his final year, but the distance did nothing to cool their passion.

“I was confused,” Brigitte admitted in a rare interview with Paris Match. “I told myself he would fall for someone his own age. That never happened.”

Emmanuel went on to study politics and international relations at university, and their relationship endured. “Every Friday after our Spanish class, he would rush to the station and jump on the train,” said Gaspar Ganzer, who studied with Macron at the University of Strasbourg.

The couple married in the fall of 2007, the same year Brigitte’s divorce was finalized. He was 29; she was 54.

The wedding took place at the town hall in the seaside town of Le Touquet—the same place where Brigitte had first married in 1974 and where her family owned a summer home. Brigitte wore a short white dress. Her three children, other family members, and Emmanuel’s parents attended.

“Each of you is a witness to these past 13 years,” Macron said in a toast to his wife and new family. “You accepted us. You made us who we are today… I want to thank you for loving us as we are, and I want to thank Brigitte’s children because it wasn’t easy for them.”

Following their wedding, the couple focused on Emmanuel’s rapidly rising political career. Brigitte eventually gave up teaching to become his chief advisor when he was appointed finance minister in François Hollande’s government in 2014. She stood by him during his presidential campaign and weathered harsh attacks in the French media, including accusations that Emmanuel used her as a cover to hide alleged homosexual relationships with the head of Radio France.

Though the couple appeared confident publicly and Emmanuel vigorously denied the claims, Brigitte was privately deeply hurt by the rumors, writes Brun. A close friend said, “She is a woman who has already endured a great deal of pain.”

In 2017, at age 39, Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France, becoming the youngest leader in the nation’s history. That same year, in an interview with Elle France, Brigitte addressed their age difference: “There are moments in life when you have to make fateful decisions,” she said. “Of course, we have breakfast together—I with my wrinkles, he with his youth—but that’s life.”

In recent months, the French president has faced both political and personal turmoil. His government collapsed in December, plunging France into chaos after a no-confidence vote against centrist Michel Barnier.

Earlier this month, the Élysée Palace had to deny false claims that Macron had taken cocaine on a train bound for Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

On the same day as the public spat with Brigitte, the French Court of Auditors issued a warning that social security spending “has spiraled out of control,” and a long-anticipated financial crisis is fast approaching.

Meanwhile, Emmanuel sought to downplay the incident with Brigitte, calling it “a disagreement, more of a joke,” and added, “Everyone needs to calm down.”

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