Macron defends his marriage, slams critics

The newly-elected President of France Emmanuel Macron has spoken out against media outlets for allegedly focusing more on his relationship with his wife over his politics.

He told the Le Parisien newspaper in an interview that no one would have focused on his marriage if he was the older one in the couple.

“If I had been 20 years older than my wife, nobody would have thought for a single second that I couldn’t be [an intimate partner],” Macron said.

“It’s because she is 20 years older than me that lots of people say, ‘This [relationship] can’t be tenable, it can’t be possible’,” he also said.

“There is a big problem with the presentation of society and [how they see] the place of women,” the French president-elect added.

Macron, 39, also the youngest French president in the history, got married to Brigitte Trogneux, 64, in 2007.  Brigitte also has three children from a previous marriage.

Macron met Brigitte, who was his drama teacher when he was a 15-year-old, and they went on to develop a closer relationship while working together to re-write a play. The way they had met was also a point of fascination to the media outlets, reports Harper’s Bazaar Australia.

The couple married in 2007 when he was almost 30 and she was 54.

Throughout the time of Macron’s presidential campaign, his relationship with his wife drew more media attention than the campaign as Brigitte is 24 years older than him.

French president Emmanuel Macron with his wife Brigitte Trogneux arrive on stage at the Parc des Expositions in Paris on April 23, 2017. Photo: AFP

Macron, who beat Front National candidate Marine Le Pen with 66.1 percent of the vote earlier this week, also addressed to reports that he is gay, saying that “rampant homophobia” had become an issue, because the way people wrote about his sexuality implied it was a “stain” or a “hidden disease” to be gay.

In the lead-up to winning the election, the newly-elected French president credited his wife for helping him throughout the campaign, saying she would play a big role in shaping his politics.

“If I am elected—no, sorry, when we are elected—she will be there, with a role and a place. She will have an existence, she will have a voice there, a view on things. She will be at my side, as she has always been, but she will also have a public role,” Macron told Vanity Fair in a pre-election interview.

He has also reportedly offered her a staff, a budget and responsibilities, but no salary.