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Jacques Chirac kisses his wife, Bernadette, in a 2004 image. REUTRES

"When I was with a woman, the meeting was always timed to the millimeter," said his driver in the book 'Président, la nuit vient de tomber'

Jacques Chirac, the man who gave up love for power

They were married for more than 60 years. Bernadette Chirac (86), the wife of the late former French President Jacques Chirac, was his pillar, his spine. Bernadette was always by her side, despite the many infidelities of her husband, with a reputation for womanizer and eternal seducer. Bernadette and her daughter Claude survive the former president, who died on September 26 in Paris at the age of 86.

Jacques Chirac and Bernadette Chodron de Courcel met in the 50s at the prestigious and elitist School of Political Science. They married in 1956, although Bernadette's parents, from a bourgeois and very Catholic family , did not welcome Chirac. Two daughters were born from their marriage: Laurence in 1958 and Claude in 1962. A curiosity: the Chirac were about you despite being married for six decades.

Bernadette was always by his side , in good and in bad, in health and in disease. He accompanied him throughout his long and successful political career: municipal councilor of the Corrèze, mayor of Paris, deputy, secretary of state, minister, prime minister and, finally, president of the Republic, between May 1995 and May 2007 .

His political victories followed and his love conquests . Chirac was unfaithful to his wife on numerous occasions, according to the French press. He was always discreet. She did not mount any scandal. Bernadette sacrificed herself for the family unit and for taking care of her husband's political image.

The former president was nicknamed monsieur cinq minutes douche comprise (lord five minutes, shower included) for the transience of their sexual encounters. When he was with a woman, the meeting was always timed to the millimeter , according to his chauffeur in the book President, the nuit vient de tomber . In the same book it is said that Chirac had a whole logistics set up for his personal pleasure. "Normally he used a riding school (...) for his meetings with a party collaborator or with an ambitious young woman who sought the fleeting heat of power. There were the usual ones, the crush, which managed to overcome the security cordon to approach the president , others who shared the same plane and who were waiting for him, naked, in their private space. They are deputies, ministers, counselors, bourgeois of provinces, strangers who were offered on a tray ... ", the book says.

Among her supposed lovers, actress Claudia Cardinale is named , although she has always denied this rumor. Among his long list of conquests attributed to him by the French press are the journalist of the French agency AFP Elisabeth Friederich ; the former Minister of Health Michèle Barzach and the policy editor of the newspaper Le Figaro Jacqueline Chabridon, to whom she sent uplifted letters and for whom she was about to divorce.

"Love affairs have not played a decisive role in my life. Some I have loved them well, as discreetly as possible ... It is absolutely clear that I have never thought of abandoning my wife," Chirac confessed to the journalist. Pierre Péan, author of the biography The unknown of the Elysium , published in 2007.

Jacques and Bernadette Chirac with their daughters, Claude and Laurence, in 1975.

Bernadette was aware of her husband's infidelities. "Naturally, he has been a womanizer , what political man is not or has not been? But there is something very strong between us ... He was very handsome ... women have run a lot behind him (. ..) Women run after power. That's how you have to know, "added Chirac's wife.

But the love story of Chirac and Chabridon in the 70s was no more adventure. Chirac came to rent an apartment to be with his lover. The conservative politician was about to leave Bernadette for the journalist of Le Figaro , according to Pauline de Saint-Rémy and Laureline Dupont, book authors Jacques & Jacqueline. A man and a woman facing the reason of state , published in 2016.

His wife and Marie-France Garaud, his political advisor, joined forces to end that relationship . "You do not divorce when you want to achieve the highest functions," warned his counselor. His political ambition could more than love.

The love conquests, however, continued. The night Princess Diana died in a traffic accident at the Pont de l'Alma in Paris, her advisors could not find Chirac. According to the French press of the heart, that night the president was in the arms of another woman who was not his.

In addition to Bernadette, the other two women of his life were his two daughters: Laurence , who died in 2016, and Claude , his father's political advisor. Chirac's firstborn died at age 58 due to a heart condition, after suffering from anorexia as a young woman and attempting to commit suicide in 1990. This family drama, about which Chirac did not like to speak in public, joined the family. "This has been and is the drama of my life, " he once recognized his closest.

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