Bernadette Chirac, former French first lady and Corrèze power broker, dies at 93

A life beside Jacques Chirac

Born Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Courcel on 18 May 1933 in Paris, she grew up in a family of diplomats in the city's 16th arrondissement. She met Jacques Chirac as a student at the prestigious Sciences Po university, and the two married in March 1956. The union lasted 63 years, until his death in 2019, and she accompanied him through every stage of his political ascent: parliament, two terms as prime minister, 18 years as mayor of Paris, and finally the presidency in 1995 after two failed attempts.

I was rather made to lead the life I led at his side.

At the Élysée Palace, where she spent twelve years from 1995 to 2007, she played more than a ceremonial role. She involved herself deeply in the daily organisation of the palace, from state dinner menus to the flowers in the park. On 16 May 2007, when the time came to leave, she was not at the handover ceremony; she was still in the private apartments, packing the bags.

Political power in her own name

Bernadette Chirac was the only French first lady to hold a full political mandate under her own name. She served as a general councillor for the Corrèze department without interruption from 1979 to 2015, a thirty-six-year tenure that gave her a power base independent of her husband. Her daughter Claude followed in her footsteps, being elected departmental councillor for Corrèze in 2021.

A great lady of the heart has departed.

The Pièces Jaunes and hospital foundation

Beyond electoral politics, she became the public face of the Pièces Jaunes operation and served as president of the Fondation des Hôpitaux de Paris - Hôpitaux de France. President Emmanuel Macron, confirming her death on Saturday, said she had "changed the lives of so many people with discretion and unshakeable determination" and had marked "the destiny of millions of anonymous patients thanks to her intimate and constant commitment."

National tributes

Macron and his wife Brigitte invited the public to sign a condolence book at the Élysée Palace from 3 p.m. on Saturday. Tributes poured in from across the political spectrum, from right to left. Her last public appearance came on 9 June 2018 in Corrèze, where, frail and in a wheelchair, she inaugurated the first street named after the Chirac couple.

She passed away peacefully in the evening, surrounded by her family. She had just turned 93.

A date with history

Her death on 5 June 2026 fell almost exactly twenty-two years after she stood beside Jacques Chirac in Normandy on 6 June 2004 for the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings, one of the many state occasions that defined her public life. She was 93 years old.