Bernadette Chirac, former French first lady and political force in her own right, dies at 93

A life of duty and endurance

Bernadette Chirac, born Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Courcel on 18 May 1933 in Paris, died on the evening of 5 June 2026 at the age of 93. Her daughter Claude Chirac announced that she "passed away peacefully in the evening, surrounded by her family. She had just turned 93." For more than half a century, she was the fixed point in her husband Jacques Chirac's restless political climb through Parliament, two terms as prime minister, 18 years as mayor of Paris, and finally the presidency from 1995 to 2007.

A great lady of the heart has departed.

President Macron confirmed her death on Saturday, saying he and his wife Brigitte learned with "great sadness" of the passing of a woman who marked French history and changed the lives of millions of patients through her charitable work.

An independent political operator

Almost alone among the wives of French presidents, Bernadette Chirac built a base of power that was her own. She served as a general councillor for the Corrèze department, elected continuously from 1979 to 2015. After her husband left public life in 2007, she declared: "My husband no longer does politics, but I do." She was also the only person in the presidential circle who anticipated Jean-Marie Le Pen's presence in the second round of the 2002 election, a warning Jacques Chirac later acknowledged in his memoirs.

Bernadette is the woman of my life, how many things we have done together.

The Pièces Jaunes legacy

Since 1994, Bernadette Chirac led the Pièces Jaunes operation, a charity benefiting hospitalised children. Anne Barrère, vice-president of the Fondation des Hôpitaux de France, said she "was one of the first to understand that young people's mental health was a major subject." Barrère described her as "a very committed woman, totally devoted to the cause of vulnerable people" who "really changed the lives of children."

When she arrived in 1994, she arrived with a project. She wanted to change the daily lives of young girls suffering from anorexia and addictions.

A marriage of contrasts

The couple met at Sciences Po university in Paris in 1951. She came from an aristocratic, wealthy Catholic family with diplomats and industrialists; he was the grandson of teachers from Corrèze. Her parents were not impressed, convinced he was beneath her social station, but the couple married on 16 March 1956. The union lasted 63 years, until Jacques Chirac's death in 2019. His reputation as a womaniser was an open secret she met with dry humour. When asked in 1998 about rumours linking her husband to an Italian actor, she told photographers: "Calm down. I'm not Claudia Cardinale. Or Gina Lollobrigida."

At first it was hard. I was heartbroken. Then I got used to it. I told myself that's how things were and I had to accept it with as much dignity as possible.

National farewell

Outside the Élysée Palace, a condolence book was made available to the public, the first time such an arrangement has been put in place for a personality at that location. A black-and-white portrait of the former first lady and the register were placed on a black-draped table, with French and European flags adorned with ribbons nearby. One child's handwritten message read: "We love you very much, Madame."