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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think Brigitte Macron is a pedophile

347 replies

INFP · 26/08/2017 02:12

Apologies if this subject has been done before. But I came across an article where Brigitte Macron describes her love affair with her then 15 year old pupil where she goes on to say "when we became lovers is our secret".

AIBU to think this woman is a pedophile?

She actively groomed her FIFTEEN year old pupil. How is she different to Jeremy Forrest who was jailed for having a relationship with his pupil?

It is beyond disgusting.

OP posts:
LakieLady · 26/08/2017 08:35

I think perhaps the French have slightly different attitudes to this sort of thing.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, they certainly seem to have a very successful marriage, which I don't think would have been the case if there had been an abusive element to it at the outset.

I had a colleague who started a relationship with one of her teachers (31) as soon as she left the school at 16. I suspect that there was a closeness or attachment between them before that, too.

They have now been happily married for 20+ years and have 2 children, and are a lovely family.

PebblesFlintstone · 26/08/2017 08:41

There was a thread about this a few months ago. She was his teacher at 15 but they weren't in a relationship until many years later, although he had apparently told her he wanted to marry her. She remained married to her first husband for several years after she taught Macron.

TimeafterTimeafterTime · 26/08/2017 08:53

They are clearly soulmates whose love has stood the test of time. Good for them.

Papafran · 26/08/2017 08:58

I don't see it as any different to Jeremy Forrest to be honest. It is ethically wrong to get involved in a relationship with a child when you are in a position of trust.

Papafran · 26/08/2017 09:00

She was his teacher at 15 but they weren't in a relationship until many years later

That isn't true. This interview with his parents describes a tearful conversation between EM's mum and BM where EM's mum told BM that she was not to see EM again 'until he was 18' upon which BM said she 'couldn't promise anything'.

www.telegraph.co.uk/men/relationships/macron-affair-french-presidential-candidates-parents-discovered/

BarbarianMum · 26/08/2017 09:04

Timeaftertime if they were soulmates then she could have let him enjoy his adolescence, maybe date a bit, discover for himself what he wanted in a relationship and got together with him at 25. If you are soulmates you don't have to to control and groom a 15 year old.

TimeafterTimeafterTime · 26/08/2017 09:08

The difference is that Forest had a sexual relationship with his 15 year old pupil and took her away from her parents sparking an international police search. The affair fizzled out after an enforced separation i.e. his imprisonment

No-one knows when the Macron relationship became sexual; it withstood separation - him being sent away to school - and they are still together 25 years later. He became a successful businessman and she continued her career in education without - as far as we know - preying on other 15 year old lads. So she clearly isn't a paedophile.

Gaelle1 · 26/08/2017 09:17

Age of consent isn't considered when the older party is in a position of authority such as a teacher, drama coach, priest, vacation monitor - where the older person has the opportunity of access to the younger person. We are french. We know what she did is wrong. It's called detournement de mineur. In english it's corruption of minor. She should have gone to jail but his parents or her husband at that time did not file a complaint against her.

minipie · 26/08/2017 09:17

Not a paedophile but yes an abuse of her position. Although he does seem to have been the initiator from what I have read - but she should have discouraged him and distanced herself.

TBH I'm more bothered about the fact that he was the OM and she was married with DC, than the age gap. (And yes I'd be equally bothered if the sexes were reversed).

Gaelle1 · 26/08/2017 09:19

Oh french people do not have a different attitude. We voted for Macron not her so as not to let Le Pen win. We do not want to be reminded of their abnormal lives. And yes, they became intimate when he was only 16 years old and she 41 years old. He is 2 years younger than her son.

MorrisZapp · 26/08/2017 09:25

Fair play to the Macrons, they seem happy. I'm absolutely certain though that if the sexes were reversed then any discussion of them on here would include the terms: grooming, predatory, rape, abuse, minimise, deny, paedophile, consent.

BurnTheBlackSuit · 26/08/2017 09:26

He was 15 and she was in a position of authority over him. It is therefore wrong and illegal. It doesn't matter if he initiated things or stalked her or whatever. SHE was the adult and the relationship was wrong and it was up to her to say no. He was a child and innocent. To say otherwise is a very slippery slope.

It doesn't matter if they have been together for years or that he is successful. That doesn't suddenly make the relationship a good one. The imbalance of power and the grooming element is still there, the foundation of the relationship. He has never known anything else. And successful confident people can still be in toxic relationships. I think it is very very important that people remember that. Marriages that look happy, successful and long lasting on the outside aren't always on the inside. And it's not just weak, unsuccessful people who get abused. Or women.

Gaelle1 · 26/08/2017 09:26

Oh my. You fabricated a tale right there. Their affair did not fizzle out. They would continue to see each other when he would come home for the weekends. Then, she followed him to Paris. She should have gone to jail. In france, it is wrong as well. The age of consent is not considered because she was his drama coach. It's called corruption of minor. She didn't go to jail because his parents and her husband did not file a complaint. They should have. She is a disgusting person accusing him of pursuing her. She is abnormal. Good grief... Like as if she had to entertain the pursuit.

Queenofthestress · 26/08/2017 09:33

Its actually called Ephebophilia I think, don't quote me on that, where someone is attracted to someone who is underage but past puberty, so ages 15 - 19

Viviennemary · 26/08/2017 09:34

Their secret. Yuck. That sounds totally awful for a start. Of course what she did was quite wrong and totally unprofessional but I wouldn't use that label in this case.

Papafran · 26/08/2017 09:35

Gaelle I think the bit about the affair fizzling out relates to Jeremy Forest, the English teacher who had an affair with his pupil. I still cannot see a big difference other than the fact that they stupidly went on the run. There was a much smaller age gap as well- Jeremy Forest was 30 and his student 15. Brigitte Macron was 24 years older than EM.

Anyway, they seem happy now, but at the time, that was clearly wrong and a very unhealthy relationship. And the only experience of relationships that EM has had.

MorrisZapp · 26/08/2017 09:35

Yes the 'she was the one that fancied me' line doesn't wash when discussing schoolgirls. Pupils will always develop feelings for teachers, it's the teachers job to handle that professionally.

I've never understood why there was an international manhunt for that Jeremy guy. His actions were illegal but there was no suggestion of danger to the girl, they were just a pair of idiots.

CoinOperatedGurl · 26/08/2017 09:36

No she's not a paedophile. That was is used so incorrectly these days it's shocking.

Papafran · 26/08/2017 09:39

No-one knows when the Macron relationship became sexual; it withstood separation - him being sent away to school

From what I read, the parents thought he was away at school, but he was with her. And the bit where his mum was begging a 40 year old married woman 'please don't see my son until he is 18' and she tells her that she can't make any promises. What the actual fuck.

Describing a child as the OM is also pretty off. BM was the one who was married, it was her responsibility not to sleep with someone else and definitely not someone who was a child, younger than her own child.

Gottagetmoving · 26/08/2017 09:44

She's not a paedophile or any other sort of phile.If she was, she'd have ditched Emannuel Macron for someone younger. Instead, she's remained in a committed relationship with him for two decades

Exactly.
People really need to stop looking for something disgusting where none exists.
All situations are different. Of course we need laws to protect the young and vulnerable but this relationship has proved to be as committed and genuine as any of your relationships.
Save your disgust for real cases of abuse and perversion.

Thatssomecatchthatcatch22 · 26/08/2017 09:48

The initial euphoria on keeping Le Pen out of the Élysée Palace has fizzled away like froth on piss. The Macron sheen continues to dull - especially after his plans to create some sort of official Consort role for her were rightly dismissed.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 26/08/2017 09:49

This thread is the most hypocritical thing I've read in a long, long time.

Gaelle1 · 26/08/2017 09:51

What is shocking is that we are now being groomed to think that what she did is ok; that their abnormality is ok. No amount of image 'laundering' is going to erase their history. She is 25 years older, by the way. What it looks like is the exercise of power and ego on her part. That's abuse isn't it?

In one french article, it was mentioned that there was a case like hers at that time their affair began (when he was 16 years old) and that other affair resulted to the older woman committing suicide. Perhaps his parents wanted to avoid that. I mean... she tearfully told his parents (when he was only 16) that she cannot promise to leave him alone.

Just because they have been together for sometime does not mean that what she did when he was only 16 years old and groomed him thereafter is right. And sorry, I don't know what others feel but it makes me sick to read journals romanticising this and making it sound like a fairy tale. And yes, we are more sensitive to this topic perhaps because of a very bad experience with such a predator to my teenage child.

Gaelle1 · 26/08/2017 09:52

hypocritical? in what sense. please do explain.

Papafran · 26/08/2017 09:56

hypocritical? in what sense. please do explain

I think in the sense that posters are going on about them being 'soulmates' and 'lasting the distance'. The same posters would probably call for someone like Jeremy Forest to be strung up and castrated. I am guessing that if some of the soulmate posters have sons, they would not be so happy if their sons began a relationship with their 40 year old teacher in a few years time...