Bernadette Chirac
Bernadette Chirac | |
|---|---|
Chirac in 2009 | |
| Spouse of the President of France | |
| In role 17 May 1995 – 16 May 2007 | |
| President | Jacques Chirac |
| Preceded by | Danielle Mitterrand |
| Succeeded by | Cécilia Sarkozy |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Courcel 18 May 1933 Paris, France |
| Party | Les Republicains |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, including Claude Chirac and Anh Dao Traxel |
Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chirac (French pronunciation: [bɛʁnadɛt teʁɛz maʁi ʃiʁak]; née Chodron de Courcel; born 18 May 1933) is a French politician and the widow of the former president Jacques Chirac.
She and Chirac met as students at Sciences Po, and were married on 16 March 1956. They had two daughters: Laurence (born 4 March 1958, deceased 14 April 2016) and Claude Chirac (born 6 December 1962). A former Vietnamese refugee, Anh Dao Traxel, is a foster daughter of Bernadette and Jacques Chirac.
Since 2001, Bernadette has been the patron of Opération Pièces jaunes, a charity that helps children in French hospitals by collecting small donations. On 3 September 2007, she became the president of the "Fondation Claude-Pompidou" (Claude Pompidou Foundation), following the death of Claude Pompidou, a former First Lady of France.
She was involved in her husband's successful 1995 presidential campaign and her personal popularity saw her play an important role as First Lady in her husband's reelection in 2002. She was also a councillor in Corrèze, the couple's home département.