French President Macron admits, ‘I’m still a child’– while much-older wife says he needs to be ‘psychoanalyzed’: book

A new biography portrays Emmanuel Macron as having been shaped by powerful older women, particularly his grandmother, and quotes him saying he still feels like a child who never experienced being a teenager. His wife, Brigitte Macron, reportedly said he had not come to terms with his grandmother’s influence and should be psychoanalysed. The account matters because it links his personal history and apparent isolation to concerns about how he handles criticism and political decisions.

Biographer Catherine Nay interviewed Macron, his wife and childhood friends. She describes his grandmother as controlling, says he was isolated from peers and recounts that he met Brigitte when he was 15 and she was 39; she was then his drama teacher and a married mother of three. Nay also criticises Macron’s lack of introspection, connecting it to his 2024 decision to call snap parliamentary elections, which left his government without a majority. The article says he is in the final six months of his presidency amid a collapsing centrist coalition and rising support for political opponents.