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French history myths: All French presidents have mistresses

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French history myths: All French presidents have mistresses
A man reads French magazine Closer in 2014, exposing Francois Hollande's affair with actress Julie Gayet. Photo by THOMAS COEX / AFP

Many French heads of state have been famous womanisers, but is it really the case that all presidents have mistresses? And are times changing?

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Myth: All French presidents of the Fifth Republic have had at least one mistress, it's practically a job requirement.

Whether because of perceptions about French notions of love, the old saw that power is an aphrodisiac or a combination of both, it's become a truism that French presidents are particularly libidinous.

Let's set out our terms of reference here - the Fifth Republic has been in place since 1958 and in that time there have been eight presidents (plus one interim president). All of them have been men and none (so far as we know) gay, so we're taking about men having sexual relations with women to whom they were not married.

And it's not hard to find examples of that.

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Jacques Chirac (president from 1995 to 2007) was widely described as a coureur de jupons (skirt chaser) in many of his obituaries because of his numerous affairs and flirtations while in office.

His long-suffering wife Bernadette reportedly had to ask the presidential chauffeur if she wanted to know where her husband was at night. It's from one of Chirac's chauffeurs that we get the deathless quote that the president's sexual encounters took "five minutes, including a shower".

Meanwhile Sylvia Kristel, star of soft-porn film Emmanuelle, accompanied Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1974 to 1981) on a number of 'work trips' abroad, and several female visitors - including the Danish Prime Minister - complained about VGE's behaviour towards them.

Chirac's predecessor François Mitterand (1981-1995) had a long-term mistress and a daughter who frequently visited the Elysée while he was president, but whose existence remained a closely guarded secret from the general public.

His conduct frequently seems to invite admiring chuckles, but in 2005 the daughter - Mazerine - wrote a rather sad book revealing what it had been like growing up knowing that she was some kind of shameful secret who could never call her father 'papa' in public.

By the time François Hollande became president in 2012 the press was rather less willing to keep the secrets of men in power, and when he began an affair with the actress Julie Gayet, his dalliance was splashed all over the front of the French gossip magazine Closer. His live-in partner Valerie Trierweiler was less than impressed, but Gayet and Hollande remained together and married earlier in 2022. 

But there have been exceptions to the 'mistress' rule, including the first president of the Fifth Republic Charles de Gaulle, who was a man of strict principle, a devout Catholic and also devoted to his wife Yvonne.

Nicolas Sarkozy (2007 to 2011) certainly didn't have a secret relationship, quite the reverse in fact. His marriage to Cecelia broke up almost immediately after he became president and his courtship of the model and actress who would become his next wife was open and public.

In fact many commentators pronounced Sarko's declarations of love for Carla Bruni rather naff - it seems they might have preferred him to have a secret mistress.

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And the current incumbent of the Elysée? Well there's always the possibility of a Mitterand-style revelation once his term of office is over, but by all accounts Emmanuel Macron is devoted to his wife Brigitte and he certainly hasn't been caught leering at female visitors in public.

Is the era of the lecherous French politician over? It's maybe too much to read into a single event, but the case of Benjamin Griveaux - former government spokesman and Paris mayoral candidate - in 2020 suggests that it may be drawing to a close.  

This article is part of our August series on popular myths and misconceptions about French history.

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