So almost three years que Bernadette Chirac n’est plus réapparue publiquement. The former First Lady, who celebrated her 90th birthday last May, remains cloistered in her private apartment on rue de Tournon in Paris, kindly lent by the billionaire and friend of the Chirac clan François Pinault. She had appeared On the docks of the Seine, alongside his daughter Claude, in a wheelchair, for an autumn ride. A few months earlier, she had gone stealthily to the funeral of her husband Jacques Chirac, but could not attend the mass rendered in the Saint-Sulpice church. Its last official appearance dates back to July 5, 2017during the funeral of the Minister of Health Simone Veil, alongside Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande, Anne Hidalgo and Ségolène Royal.
The end of Bernadette Chirac’s life does not seem very happy. As revealed Le Figaro this Wednesday October 3, 2023, release day of the eponymous biopic dedicated to her and in which Catherine Deneuve plays the title role, Bernadette Chirac would now be “very disabled and emaciated”. A few months ago, corroborant revelations had leaked, and suggested that the ex-first lady would no longer speak, and would have fallen into silence.
Even the most intimate are prohibited
Claude Chirac, the eldest child of the Chirac couple, is keeping an eye on things, and would limit visits as much as possible. She would refuse according to Le Figaro that his mother appears to too many people in this precarious state. Presumably bedridden, the nonagenarian would no longer receive visits, on the orders of his daughter : “Her daughter does not want us to see her diminished, diminished” underline our colleagues, adding that the most intimate friends, from the “first circle”would be in the same boat.
It is therefore a solitary end of life that Claude Chirac seems to impose on his mother Bernadette, whom she holds more than anything to protect from the paparazzi. A choice which may seem questionable, but which would have been motivated by stolen photos published by Paris Match and to which Claude had in no way consented: “She was outraged by the photo of his mother published in Paris Match”. It remains to be seen whether Bernadette Chirac has been kept informed of the release of the biopic dedicated to her, and whether, if so, she will be willing to watch it.