Brigitte Macron's daughter starts unlikely romance with president's nemesis

Telegraph

21-03-2025

Brigitte Macron's daughter has struck up an unlikely romance with a controversial French television host who blames the French president for cancelling his show.
Tiphaine Auzière, 41, has been pictured with Cyril Hanouna, 50, the creator of a hit evening talk show whose sensationalist tactics and hard-Right penchant forced its host channel permanently off the air last month.
The reported liaison between the bearded bad boy of French TV and one of the French first lady's three children from her first marriage is said to have started after Mr Hanouna, nicknamed Baba, recruited her to his panel as a legal commentator last year.
Paris Match, the celebrity magazine, broke the story of their supposed entanglement in a front-page spread with a photo of them together at a restaurant in Paris's chic 8th arrondissement.
'A beautiful story, more than a passing fling,' it gushed, adding that Ms Auzière had revealed her 'blossoming love story' to her mother this month. 'At the Élysée they were stunned,' it added.
Ms Auzière has two children, aged eight and nine, with consultant physician Antoine Choteau. The couple reportedly split in January.
The palace did not react to the Paris Match report. Mr Hanouna has remained uncharacteristically tight-lipped about the report and Ms Auzière has offered no public reaction either.
However, the magazine said her mother had been supportive regarding the 'improbable alliance between a woman of reason and a provocateur', which appeared to prove that 'opposites attract'.
Ms Auzière is a lawyer and novelist and last year published Assises, a book about a courtroom drama exploring the legal ramifications and responses to domestic abuse.
Mr Hanouna, of Tunisian-Jewish descent, was the host of Hands Off my Telly (TPMP), which dominated the early-evening ratings for much of its 14-year run.
'Those who know Tiphaine describe her as well-behaved and thoughtful. The opposite of the volcanic Cyril. While she weighs every word with care, they pour out in torrents from him, a born chatterbox.'
Adding piquant to the alleged romance, Mr Hanouna recently accused Emmanuel Macron of having a hand in French television authority Arcom taking him off air by cancelling the broadcast licence of C8.
It is owned by Vincent Bolloré, a conservative tycoon who uses his media empire to back Marine Le Pen's hard-right National Rally. Ms Le Pen slammed the decision as an act of 'political censorship'. Mr Macron insisted it was not a 'political decision' and has denied having a direct hand in the move.
TPMP had racked up a total of €7.6 million in fines for offences including using vulgar language to insult a Left-wing MP, along with homophobia, misogyny, anti-Islamic content, conspiracy theories and overall Right-wing bias. The show is now limited to the internet but remains popular, with two million subscribers on YouTube.
Paris Match was owned by Mr Bolloré until last year, when it was acquired by Bernard Arnault, head of the LVMH luxury empire and Europe's richest person.
Earlier this month, the Elysée issued a rare warning to Mr Bolloré against his media empire's pro-Russian tilt after his Sunday paper JDD accused Mr Macron of seeking to panic France in an address to the nation when he described Russia as a 'threat' to all of Europe.
'In this serious period... everyone must ensure that the facts are perfectly accurate,' it said. 'The moment demands clarity, patriotism and a sense of national unity.'
In its report this week, Paris Match said Ms Auzière had 'acquired her independent spirit' from weathering the scandal that was the love affair between her mother and Mr Macron. The French president was just 15 when he fell for his married drama teacher, Brigitte Auzière, then 40, at the Catholic Providence school in Amiens in the early 1990s.
'And so history is repeating itself,' the magazine said. 'Just like Brigitte Macron in earlier days, love is the most powerful motor for freeing oneself from the rules of one's universe.'
In an interview with The Telegraph last year, Ms Auzière said the most important piece of wisdom her mother passed down to her was: ''Be an independent woman'. By independent she meant 'free'; that you should be free to make whatever choices you want in life.'
She also said: 'I think I've managed to stay pretty anonymous really, and to live happily is to live anonymously.'
Mr Hanouna's show has appalled and fascinated in equal measure in France. In 2018, he gave the first television platform to the Yellow Vests populist uprising against the Macron government.
Last week Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the radical Left Unbowed France party, was accused of anti-Semitism after his party put Mr Hanouna's face on an AI replica of an anti-Semitic 1940 Nazi poster for the propaganda film The Eternal Jew.
'It's a caricature that takes us back to the darkest hours,' Mr Hanouna said on Europe 1 radio, also owned by Mr Bolloré and where he hosts a daily show. The party removed the caricature but did not apologise.
Not everyone is convinced the supposed romance between Mr Hanouna and Ms Auzière is real.
Le Point magazine cited a source close to Mr Hanouna as saying: 'There are no revealing photos in the report. And frankly, Cyril very often invites certain members of the team to dinner in the evening, after the show, it's his habit. It's nothing new…'
Others pointed to the fact that the pair left separately and that Mr Hanouna seemed 'more intent on eating his pasta' than gazing into Ms Auzière's eyes.
Social media commentators also suggested the entire situation may have been set up by Mr Hanouna to deflect attention from a report by Mediapart, which released a recording of him on Friday allegedly insulting and threatening to beat up a columnist during a break on his show in 2023.
Others said it may be his way of 'getting a foot in the Elysée' and making overtures to Mr Macron after their bust-up. 'Next thing, he'll be minister then president,' one quipped.