Valerie Trierweiler is a journalist and a twice-divorced mother of three teenage boys. She never thought she'd also end up as the first lady of France.
Americans will get their first close-up look at the woman who now calls France's Elysee Palace home when she and her partner, President Francois Hollande, visit the White House this afternoon.
Until a few months ago, Trierweiler, 47, hosted a weekly interview show on a minor French TV network. She is better known for her sharp political writing at big-time photo newsmagazine Paris Match, where she has worked for the past 20 years.
She works, she has children, she was divorced, she has a life behind her. She's good-looking, elegant without being flashy. I think the average French woman can identify with her.
Philippe Labro, who is the founder of Direct 8 TV and who hired Trierweiler, says she is "a very, very typically modern French woman."
"In other words," he says, "she works, she has children, she was divorced, she has a life behind her. She's good-looking, elegant without being flashy. I think the average French woman can identify with her."
One of six children, Trierweiler grew up in a working-class family in central France. Her mother, a cashier at an ice skating rink, told her daughter that work was the only way to independence. Trierweiler met Hollande while covering politics for Paris Match. The couple has been together for six years, and Trierweiler is credited with giving Hollande the force to run for president — both mentally and physically.
Hollande lost 30 pounds, donned new glasses and updated his wardrobe before hitting the campaign trail. Colombe Pringle, editor in chief of Point de Vue magazine, says the couple dancing on election night represents something new.
"For us French, that image of them on that stage and they started dancing, it reminded us more of an American couple, of the Obamas or even the Clintons," he says. "The way you in America — your president and his wife are really a team, and they walk together, hold their hands when they get on the plane."
Hollande and Trierweiler are the first unmarried couple to occupy the French presidential palace, but Pringle says that shouldn't pose a problem for the most part.
"It's just a different way of being a couple. There could be some protocol problems if you go to the Vatican to see the pope, but she doesn't have to go and see the pope," Pringle says. "When Nicolas Sarkozy went, he went alone. But also, he was divorced twice, and the Catholic Church doesn't like divorced people."
Trierweiler, who says she doesn't want to stop working now that she's first lady, became known during the campaign for her fiery tweets. When her own magazine put her on the cover with the headline "Hollande's Charming Asset," she tweeted: "Bravo Paris Match for its sexism, my thoughts go out to all angry women."
Pringle predicts that this first lady will be very different.
"She is expert in politics," he says. "She knows exactly how it works. She knows the system and she knows all about communication, so she can be very helpful for Francois Hollande."
Trierweiler may also get some tips from her American counterpart, first lady Michelle Obama, with whom she is expected to share a tete-a-tete lunch this weekend.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
