The romance between France’s future president and his drama teacher sparked intense controversy when it first emerged.
Emmanuel Macron was 15 when he met Brigitte Auzière, then 39, a married mother of three whose oldest daughter attended the same class as him.
Now, 33 years later, a similar age-gap relationship has drawn attention within the first lady’s family.
Tiphaine Auzière, 42, has publicly revealed her relationship with Antoine Lecomte, a kitesurfing instructor who is 20 years younger than her.
The news comes as Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron continue to present a united front despite their 24-year age difference and several highly publicised moments, including footage said to show Mrs Macron slapping her husband and remarks by Donald Trump about their marriage.
Ms Auzière and Mr Lecomte reportedly met during the summer in Le Touquet, the fashionable resort town on France’s north-western coast.
Lecomte studies at NEOMA Business School, competes in kitesurfing and founded Mission Kiteboarding.
While working as a kitesurfing instructor along the coast, he taught Ms Auzière to ride an eFoil, an electric-powered surfboard.
Tiphaine Auzière, 42, has recently gone public with her relationship with 22-year-old Antoine Lecomte.
The couple shared an Instagram video on Sunday showing their van journey to Amsterdam.
Mr Lecomte was working on the coast as a kitesurfing instructor, and taught Ms Auzière how to use an eFoil
The Macron family has had a holiday home in the coastal resort for many years and Ms Auzière’s law firm has an office there.
The Daily Mail caught up with Mr Lecomte last week after he returned to shore from an energetic five-hour training session on the water.
Wearing a full wetsuit, covered in sand and brandishing a sail, the 22-year-old grinned as he admitted: ‘I can appreciate why people are interested because our relationship is very similar to that of her mother, Brigitte, and President Macron.’
He stressed: ‘It’s not a summer fling. It’s love, it’s serious. We have plans for the future.
‘I know a lot of people in Le Touquet and they are all happy for us,’ he added, ‘They say if we are happy then they are happy. Age means nothing when you are in love.
‘Tiphaine may be 20 years older but she is fun, exciting and full of joie de vivre.’
Last week, the pair posted a video of a van trip to Amsterdam on Instagram.
It shows the couple sightseeing, looking at art and staying in a room at the Faralda Hotel, which is built high in a former crane at a disused shipyard, with the caption: ’48h in dam with Madam’.
Although the majority of comments on the video were positive, viewers were quick to draw harsh comparisons between their age gap and that of Ms Auzière’s mother and famous stepfather.
One wrote: ‘Is there some kind of psychological issue in the family? Isn’t there a certain condition where someone wants someone much, much younger than themselves? Or is it a family pattern?’
Another said: ‘When he grows up, he will be the president of the republic.’
Meanwhile, others were quick to point out a double standard, with one furious commenter saying: ‘But what’s the big deal?! You’re all taking this way too seriously. When it comes to an older man, nobody seems to mind, do they… He’s a consenting adult.
‘They’re having a great time, and they’re absolutely right to. I don’t get this crazy obsession with being so harsh on women, you jealous bunch!’
The new relationship comes after the lawyer’s split from controversial French TV host Cyril Hanouna in May 2026.
She was also previously in a civil partnership with gastroenterologist and hepatologist Antoine Choteau until they separated in early 2025.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mr Lecomte admitted he didn’t actually know who Tiphaine was when they first met.
‘She came for some efoil lessons at the beginning of the summer, we got on and she came back a few times and then we met up at a party I was invited to.
‘But I had no idea she was Brigitte Macron’s daughter until later; it doesn’t bother me, we get on really well and that is the most important thing, we make each other happy,’ he said.
The lawyer has previously spoken about her experiences as a schoolgirl when her mother began a relationship with Mr Macron
The lawyer is expected to accompany Mr Lecomte to Asia, where he is developing his company
The lawyer split from controversial French TV host Cyril Hanouna in May
Speaking to French magazine Gala, a close friend of the president’s stepdaughter said Ms Auzière and Mr Lecomte have ‘a lot in common’ including ‘a love of Le Touquet and thrills, but also travel and entrepreneurship.’
‘It was immediately obvious between them,’ they added.
Another friend said, ‘Tiphaine is very much like her mother. Like Brigitte, she follows her heart and doesn’t care what other people think. The only opinion that matters to her is that of her family.’
The lawyer is expected to accompany Mr Lecomte to Asia, where he is developing his company.
Ms Auzière has reportedly introduced him to her two children, 12-year-old Élise and Aurèle, ten.
The lawyer has previously spoken about her experiences as a schoolgirl when her mother, then 38, began her relationship with Mr Macron.
At the time, Mr Macron was a teenage pupil at the Providence Catholic school in Amiens, where Ms Macron was a teacher.
‘It forged my temperament and gave me strength,’ she told The Sunday Times in 2024. ‘In any case, I never stopped to think about what people might say, so it hasn’t changed my life. I’ve learnt to live with it and independently of it.’
‘In any case, I never stopped to think about what people might say, so it hasn’t changed my life. I’ve learnt to live with it and independently of it.’
In a separate interview, Ms Auzière said: ‘If I have to give a vision of love, it’s Emmanuel and Mummy. When they are together, it is almost as if the world doesn’t exist.’
Similarly to Mr Lecomte, Mr Macron, too, was a student when he met his future wife. However, he was much younger at 15.
At the time Ms Macron, was married to André-Louis Auzière, with whom she had three children. Mr Macron’s parents removed him from the school once the relationship came to light.
His mother, Francoise Nogues-Macron, told Anne Fulda, author of Emmanuel Macron: A Perfect Young Man: ‘We just couldn’t believe it. What is clear is that when Emmanuel met Brigitte, we couldn’t just say, “That’s great”.’
She added: ‘What mattered to me was not the fact he was having a relationship with Brigitte but that he was alive and there weren’t any problems.’
The president’s father, Jean-Michel Macron, meanwhile said he ‘almost fell off his chair’ upon hearing the news.
Mr Macron eventually married his wife when he was 29 and she was 54. As he became a stepfather to her three adult children, he reportedly told them at the wedding reception: ‘Thanks for accepting us, a not-quite-normal couple.’
Speaking to French magazine Gala, a close friend of the president’s stepdaughter said Ms Auzière and Mr Lecomte have ‘a lot in common’
Footage captures the moment a 15-year-old Emmanuel Macron, left, kissed his 40-year-old teacher, right, two years before he declared he wanted to marry her
The French president poses for a photograph in Le Touquet his wife Brigitte Macron
Ms Macron is said to be delighted about her daughter’s new relationship. A source told Gala: ‘She reacted just like any mother would.
‘All that matters to her is her daughter’s happiness, so she’s very happy to see her thriving. She’ll be delighted to meet Antoine.’
Ms Auzière has in the past defended her mother against what she called sexist and ageist attacks.
Speaking in 2017, when Ms Macron was standing as a parliamentary candidate for her stepfather’s La Republique En Marche party, she said: ‘I think we cannot remain indifferent to this, and now I do not want to give any importance to people who convey this kind of stuff, because I find it totally outrageous in France in the 21st century to make such attacks.
‘These are attacks that we wouldn’t direct at male politicians or at a man who would accompany a female politician.
‘So I think there’s a lot of jealousy, and that this is very inappropriate.’
She added: ‘On the ground, on the contrary, I meet people who admire what she does, her work, her involvement.
‘If people have nothing else to do but criticise, let them do it, it will only bring us closer together.’
And Mr Lecomte is not bothered by the age gap, and claims nobody else actually cares.
‘People are not bothered about us and the age gap, they treat us normally but we laugh a lot together and we help each other, and enjoy time together,’ he told the Daily Mail.