Bernadette Chirac

Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chirac ( 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.

Early life and education
Born in Paris on 18 May 1933, Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Courcel was the daughter of Jean-Louis Chodron de Courcel (1907–1985), sales director of Emaux de Briare Inc., and Marguerite de Brondeau d'Urtières (1910–2000). She was the oldest of three children: her sister Catherine was born in 1946 and her brother Jérôme in 1948.

Her family were devout Catholics and she received a strict upbringing from her mother. Her father was called up in 1939 and imprisoned in Germany until the end of the Second World War. In June 1940, she and her mother fled to Lot-et-Garonne, where she attended the Sainte-Marthe school in Agen. From 1941 to 1943, after the occupation of the zone libre, they fled again to Gien in the Loiret. There she attended Sainte-Marie-des-Fleurs-et-des-Fruits school until the return of her father in 1945. The family settled in the sixth arrondissement of Paris. She went to the Paris Institute of Political Studies in 1950 where she met and married her future husband. Like most women at the time, upon marrying, she did not take her degree.

Political career

 * 1971: Elected to the municipal council of Sarran (Department of Corrèze).
 * 1977: Aide to the mayor of Sarran.
 * 1979: Elected to the Departmental council of Corrèze and subsequently re-elected in March 1985, March 1992, March 1998, March 2004, March 2011 and again September 2011.
 * 1990: Founder and president of the "Association le Pont Neuf" designed to promote exchanges between young French people and young people from Asia.
 * 1991: President of an International Dance Festival.
 * 1994: President of the "Fondation Hôpitaux de Paris-Hôpitaux de France", a charitable foundation aiming to improve the day-to-day lives of the children and the elderly who have been hospitalised. She was also patron of Opération Pièces Jaunes, an annual fundraising campaign to improve conditions in children's hospitals.

Later life
In 2001, Bernadette Chirac participated in a series of transcribed interviews with the conservative journalist Patrick de Carolis. These were published in a book called Conversation, which sold 350,000 copies in its first year of publication.

She appeared in public for the last time in summer 2018. Following her husband's death in 2019, she attended a private service at St. Louis Cathedral at Les Invalides, but was not present at the funeral mass held at the Church of Saint Sulpice in Paris.

Immediate family

 * Father: Jean Chodron de Courcel (1907–1985), sales director. Studied at Eton followed by Cambridge University.
 * Mother: Marguerite–Marie de Brondeau d'Urtières (1910–2000)
 * Paternal grandfather: Robert Chodron de Courcel, diplomat and landowner.
 * Paternal great grandfather: George Chodron de Courcel (1840–1904), naval officer.

Nobility of Bernadette Chirac
Bernadette Chirac was born into the Chodron de Courcel family, an old aristocratic family of public servants, from the Trois-Évêchés. Her family includes military officers, goldsmiths, lawyers, diplomats and industrialists. They would become owners through marriages of factories in Gien and Briare, in the Loiret, which were famed for their porcelain and enamel mosaics. Like many old French families, Bernadette Chirac has several European royal families among her ancestors. In 1852, a decree by Napoleon III authorized the addition of Courcel, one of the family's properties, to their name. In 1867, Napoleon III made Alphonse Chodron de Courcel a hereditary baron for services rendered to the State.

Honours

 * Legion Honneur Chevalier ribbon.svg Knight of the Legion of Honour (🇫🇷 France)
 * Den kongelige norske fortjenstorden storkors stripe.svg Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit (🇳🇴 Norway)
 * POL Order Uśmiechu BAR.svg Knight of the Order of the Smile (🇵🇱 Poland)
 * ROU Order of the Star of Romania 1999 GOfficer BAR.svg Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Romania (🇷🇴 Romania)
 * Medal Pushkin rib.png Medal of Pushkin (🇷🇺 Russia)
 * MaltaBali.png Grand Cross of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta ( Sovereign Military Order of Malta)
 * ESP Charles III Order GC.svg Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III (🇪🇸 Spain)
 * TN Order Merit Rib.png Grand Cordon of the National Order of Merit of Tunisia (🇹🇳 Tunisia)

Filmography

 * La Conquête, a Xavier Durringer movie, which recounts the presidential campaign of the Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy en 2007, Bernadette Chirac is played by the actress Michèle Moretti.
 * La Dernière Campagne, 2013 TV movie directed by Bernard Stora which recounts the presidential campaign of 2012, Bernadette Chirac is played by the actress Martine Chevallier.
 * Madâme, le film, a John Paul Lepers' documentary, 2005.
 * La Rupture (2013), a Laurent Heynemann movie, Bernadette Chirac is played by the actress Estelle Skornik.
 * Bernadette (2023), a film by Léa Domenach focusing on her during Jacques Chirac's presidential term, Bernadette Chirac is played by the actress Catherine Deneuve.