PARIS — Bernadette Chirac, former first lady of France, died on Saturday at age 93 in Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed her death.
Macron said, "A great lady of the heart has departed." Chirac served as the first lady of France from 1995 to 2007. She was born Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Courcel on May 18, 1933, in Paris.
Chirac met Jacques Chirac while studying at Sciences Po in Paris, and they married in March 1956. Jacques Chirac served two terms as prime minister and was mayor of Paris for 18 years before becoming president of France in 1995. He died in 2019.
Chirac pursued her own political career, being elected municipal councilor in Sarran in 1971. She later became a general councilor in Corrèze in 1979, a position she held until 2015. "My husband no longer does politics, but I do." Chirac said.
In 1994, Chirac assumed leadership of a medical charity that collected coins for children in hospitals. She managed the charity until 2019, when she transferred its leadership to Brigitte Macron and assumed the title of honorary president. Chirac did not attend her husband's 2019 public memorial service due to health limitations.
Chirac also co-authored a memoir titled "Conversation" with journalist Patrick de Carolis in 2001. Her elder daughter, Laurence Chirac, developed severe anorexia after contracting meningitis in adolescence and died in 2016 at age 58. She once nicknamed Élysée official Dominique de Villepin "Nero."
Chirac said, "At first, it was hard. I was very heartbroken, and then I got used to it. I told myself that was how things were and that I had to accept it with as much dignity as possible."