Bernadette Chirac, who has died aged 93, stood by her late husband and French president Jacques Chirac through thick and thin during 12 years as first lady, but also forged her own, more discreet, political career.
Quiet, traditionally Roman Catholic and always immaculately turned out in classic suits and styled hair, she willingly dedicated herself to the career of the man she married when she was 22 years old and who died on September 26, 2019, aged 86.
"She is the woman of my life, we have accomplished so much together," Jacques Chirac -- who was also prime minister and a long-time mayor of Paris -- wrote in his "Memoires" in 2012.
They met at Paris's political science university Sciences Po in 1954 and married two years later, a match considered below the rank of Bernadette, who was born on May 18, 1933 into the aristocratic Chodron de Courcel family.
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