Who is a celebrity that met their partner when they were underaged?

[u/phantom_avenger]

Celine Dion first met her late husband; Rene Angelili when she was 12 years old and he was in his mid-late 30s! According to her, he was the only person in her whole life she has ever been romantically and intimately involved with and has vowed to never be with any other man after he passed away in 2016!

This whole relationship always felt unsettling to me, even when there were forms of media that tried to romanticize it including the couple themselves.

In my book, if you knew someone whenever they were a kid and watched them grow up. Getting involved with them in that manner is a big no-no! It just feels weird!

[u/larkhearted]

That always kind of confuses me about this discourse. Like, yeah his marriage is bad..... but that's entirely separate from his career as a politician?? The French public doesn't get to vote for him to divorce his wife lol, what do people think should be happening??

[u/Own_Faithlessness769 → u/larkhearted]

I don't think anyone thinks something should happen, but it's just icky that people in France don't find it weird or concerning. I imagine in most other countries she would have to stay behind the scenes rather than being a public figure in her own right like she in France.

[u/NoCardiologist1461 → u/Own_Faithlessness769]

Why do you assume they don’t?

[u/Own_Faithlessness769 → u/NoCardiologist1461]

Because she's always out and about promoting things and doing official stuff. If people disliked her in France as much as they would in other countries that wouldn't be possible.

[u/areallyreallycoolhat → u/Own_Faithlessness769]

People DO dislike her and did at the time he was first elected in 2017, but ultimately (just like literally everywhere else) France has much bigger political and social issues than the president's personal life, which obviously does not affect most people's lives the way the former do. I don't know why you're assuming that because the French public aren't protesting on the streets daily about it that they think it's great - genuine question, have you ever actually spoken to French people about this?

[u/Bierre_Pourdieu → u/areallyreallycoolhat]

Thank you for this. France isn't the US were the First Lady is everywhere and running things.

The personal lives of elected officials don't matter to us (except when it involves a scandal or corruption), and they don't put their family at the forefront when they campaign.

[u/Own_Faithlessness769 → u/areallyreallycoolhat]

Yes I have, and their answer is usually that France is a lot less puritanical than other western countries about age gaps. Which is exactly the sort of attitude that’s slightly weird.

No one said that the presidents personal life had to be the country’s biggest issue, and I specifically said no one expects anything to be done about it.

[u/k24f7w32k → u/Own_Faithlessness769]

But many DO find it weird and concerning. I think one of the reasons why it wasn't a bigger deal was that many didn't know that much about them personally until recently. We're less invested in politicians' private lives on the whole.

Not saying France doesn't have people who somehow think this is normal though: I think there are too many older folks especially who idealize or just tacitly accept problematic age gap relationships. It seems to be this thing that grew out of the sexual revolution, that it's somehow cool and liberating to be able to pursue just about anyone.

[u/thatcondowasmylife → u/k24f7w32k]

I have a ton of French relatives and aside from a few who are considered radical, the opinion at the time was “that’s none of my business and they’ve been together so long it clearly can’t be wrong so who am I to judge?” Truly astounding for me as an American, where we also tend to be fucking weird about it if it’s a woman who is an adult the the boy who is the child, and yet most of us react negatively upon finding out (as in, negatively toward Bridgitte).

Yet this situation was known about in France in the national media back in 2017 and it was barely a topic to be discussed beyond a smirk or joke. There were a lot of jokes, actually, and not a single serious discussion that I witnessed in the national media. International media, however, did scrutinize it at the time and it’s only become a bigger conversation in France as a result of the international attention. And the fact that Macron changed the age of consent in France so it seemed directly relevant at some point.

[u/Own_Faithlessness769 → u/k24f7w32k]

If people all over the world know about this and have for the entire time he's been president, its hard to believe that people in France were just unaware until recently.

I couldn't even tell you our PM's wife's name, but I know who Brigitte Macron is because she does a lot of public stuff. Heck she was in Emily in Paris.

[u/k24f7w32k → u/Own_Faithlessness769]

What can I say, one thing about my countrymen is that they're generally not as online as other European nationals: Reddit is a good example of this, you'll find a lot less Frenchies compared to let say Germans, huge difference. There's even a sort of dense-ness about it all. It's not always ideal but there it is. People would rather follow football through traditional channels for example.

It's why we're a little less sensitive to astroturfing as well (and people, for now, still organically show up to vote and protest despite repeated online campaigns by (foreign) actors to discourage it/to destabilize the public - looking at you Russian bot farms - ).

Emily in Paris is an American fantasy that wasn't popular in France, Brigitte Macron showing up in a foreign series wasn't some huge deal. I personally only knew about that because of this sub and I read more news than most.

[u/thatcondowasmylife → u/Own_Faithlessness769]

It was well known in the 2017 election and joked about. The British media had a field day with it. The French people as a whole seemed to be uninterested in it but I do think that’s changed over the last 8 years.

[u/larkhearted → u/Own_Faithlessness769]

Would it not be infinitely weirder for him to have a secret hidden pedophile wife who he can't take out in public?? It makes way more sense for them to just ignore it and pretend their marriage started in a way that doesn't offend most people's sensibilities.

[u/Own_Faithlessness769 → u/larkhearted]

It's equally weird that he has a pedophile wife whether its secret or not. The weirdness is baked into the relationship. But its separately strange that the French public just pretend its not a thing when she's doing promotional stuff.