Bernadette Chirac, formidable former first lady of France, dies aged 93

Bernadette Chirac, the formidable widow of the former French president Jacques Chirac and a driving force behind his political rise, has died at the age of 93. As France’s first lady for 12 years, Chirac was a steely behind-the-scenes operator in support of her husband, who served twice as prime minister, 18 years as mayor of Paris and two terms as president. Bernadette Chirac visiting a market in Place Maubert during her husband’s campaign to be elected Mayor of Paris, France, 24 February 1977. Photograph: Jacques Pavlovsky/Sygma/Getty Images When he stood back from public life in 2007, she became a politician in her own right as a councillor in the couple’s constituency in Corrèze in central France and announced: “My husband no longer does politics, but I do.” If asked about her husband at the smart dinners and society events she continued to attend, after he retired she would reply: “He’s looking after the dog.” Chirac had always said she hoped to predecease her husband; when he died in 2019, she was too frail to attend his state farewell, having made her last public appearance the previous year, when a street in the city of Brive-la-Gaillarde was named after the couple. Bernadette and Jacques Chirac at the Château de Bity in Sarran after departing his role as prime minister. Sarran, France, 30 August 1976. Photograph: ANDBZ/ABACA/Shutterstock Bernadette Thérèse Chodron de Courcel was born into a wealthy, aristocratic Catholic family and was well connected and clever. …