If her husband becomes France’s next president, Brigitte Macron will be the most unusual first lady the country has ever seen.

While French first ladies have a chequered history — making headlines for excessive spending, extra-marital affairs, treason and even murder — they’ve never been as central a figure in the formative years of their husbands’ lives as Brigitte has been for front-runner Emmanuel Macron. Brigitte Macron, who is 24 years older than the candidate, has been his guide and coach since he was 15, and is playing an active role in his campaign, advising him on speeches and effectively helping set his agenda.

“Emmanuel Macron wouldn’t have been able to embark on this adventure without her,” said Marc Ferracci, a campaign adviser and a witness at the couple’s 2007 wedding. “Her presence is essential for him.”

With two weeks to go before the decisive round of the vote, multiple polls show that Macron will defeat the far-right National Front's Marine Le Pen with a large margin. In a speech on Sunday after winning the first round of the vote, the 39-year-old candidate thanked Brigitte, 63, for being “always present.”

Without her, “I wouldn't be who I am,” he said, as his supporters screamed out her name. The couple was spotted hand-in-hand in all public sightings on voting day.

Many of the wives of French leaders have found a place in the history books: Queen Marie-Antoinette’s lavish spending contributed to the fall of the French monarchy in the late 18th century and Empress Josephine was divorced because she couldn’t give Napoleon an heir. In 1914, Prime Minister Joseph Caillaux’s wife Henriette killed the editor of the newspaper Le Figaro because he was a political threat to her husband.

If the Macrons become the next residents of the Elysee palace, Brigitte will join a list of colourful first ladies.

In the 1980s and 1990s, while Socialist president Francois Mitterrand led a double life with the mother of his illegitimate daughter Mazarine, his wife Danielle had a love life of her own. Bernadette Chirac suggested to a biographer that she silently put up with the many infidelities of her husband Jacques, while Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife Cecilia left him for her lover just six months after he took office in 2007. In 2014, President Francois Hollande’s partner Valerie Trierweiler published a bitter tell-all book on him after his liaison with actress Julie Gayet became public.

For Macron and his wife, the challenge if he takes office in May will be to not let their unusual personal history — the couple’s age difference is the same as Donald and Melania Trump, only in reverse — become a distraction. The next French president enters a post-Brexit vote, post-Trump-election world facing a domestic economy that has made an anaemic recovery with an unemployment rate still at 10 percent.

An outspoken 5-foot-4 inch former high school French literature and Latin teacher, Brigitte comes from a bourgeois family, named Trogneux, renowned for its chocolate factory in the Northern French town of Amiens. She was a drama coach at the private Jesuit school in the town in 1992 when she met 15-year-old Macron. He acted in her theatre pieces, with their association slowly developing into a romance that pushed her to divorce her husband and the father of her three children.

“We don’t have a classic family, that’s an undeniable reality”

Even after more than a decade-long marriage, their extraordinary union raises eyebrows and is bound to draw attention if and when the Elysee palace spotlights are turned on them.

Aware that they are breaking the codes of bourgeois and conservative France, the independent candidate and his partner of over 20 years have been laying the groundwork to preempt any potential personal attacks.

“They’re an atypical couple and this strengthens their relationship,” said Ferracci.

To get ahead of the story, they’ve opened the door to their lives, even being on the cover of glossy magazines like the biggest-circulation weekly Paris Match, with pictures in bathing suits during a seaside vacation. The April issue of British Vogue marvels at Madame Macron’s look: “a deep tan, a peroxide-to-honey blonde hairdo, an expensive designer handbag and car-to-carpet heels.”

Macron has twice addressed rumours about his alleged homosexuality, raising the issue unprompted at a political rally and dismissing it with a joke about needing a hologram to run a double life. He also hasn’t been afraid to tackle the student-who-married-his-teacher question head on.

“We don’t have a classic family, that’s an undeniable reality,” he said during a political meeting, with Brigitte at his side in her now-trademark denim jacket and skinny black trousers. “There is no less love in our family.”

One recent friendship may help the couple avert bad publicity. Michele Marchand — nicknamed Mimi — the head of Bestimage, one of the country’s most powerful paparazzi photo agencies, has become a supporter.

“They are genuine and normal people, that’s all I can say,” Marchand said in an interview.

People who have worked closely with Macron say Brigitte is one of the few people he trusts. Alexis Kohler, Macron’s chief of staff when he was economy minister in Hollande’s government, recalls how engaged she was in his role.

“She attended agenda meetings when he was a minister, ” he said. “She is a woman who’s involved in the life of her husband.”

Brigitte has been closely choreographing his campaign. A France3 TV documentary shows him preparing for a key speech only to have her jump up from her seat. “Your voice drops at the point where you say ‘for,”’ she says. “Raise your voice so we know what you are talking about. ” In another report, Macron is asked about her presence at a meeting. “Her opinion matters to me,” he says. She pipes up to say she is the “president of his fan club.”

French Presidential Election Show all 20 1 /20 French Presidential Election French Presidential Election Voters line up to cast their ballots REUTERS French Presidential Election French expats queue along the street outside the Lycee Francais Charles de Gaulle to cast their vote in a polling station inside the school, in the first round of the 2017 French presidential election, in London, Britain April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor - RTS13JM5 REUTERS French Presidential Election People line up to vote in the first round of 2017 French presidential election at a polling station in Vaulx-en-Velin near Lyon, France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot - RTS13HSP REUTERS French Presidential Election Police patrol polling stations in France REUTERS French Presidential Election Francois Fillon (L), member of the Republicans political party and 2017 French presidential election candidate of the French centre-right, casts his vote in the first round of 2017 French presidential election in Paris, France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Christophe Archambault/Pool - RTS13IH0 REUTERS French Presidential Election Benoit Hamon (C), French Socialist party 2017 presidential candidate, is surrounded by photographers as he leaves a polling station after voting in the first round of 2017 French presidential election in Trappes, near Paris, France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler - RTS13I0Y REUTERS French Presidential Election French President Francois Hollande collects voting slips before casting his ballot in the first round of the 2017 French presidential election at a polling station in Tulle, France, on April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Georges Gobet/Pool - RTS13ITO REUTERS French Presidential Election A policeman walks by election posters near a polling station during the first round of 2017 French presidential election in Paris, France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann - RTS13I3A REUTERS French Presidential Election Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte Trogneux REUTERS French Presidential Election Emmanuel Macron casts his ballot REUTERS French Presidential Election Emmanuel Macron, head of the political movement En Marche !, or Onwards !, and candidate for the 2017 French presidential election, waves hand during in the first round of 2017 French presidential election at a polling station in Le Touquet, northern France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier - RTS13ICH SAA/ French Presidential Election Jean-Luc Melenchon, candidate of the French far-left Parti de Gauche and candidate for the French 2017 presidential election, leaves a polling booth in the first round of 2017 French presidential election at a polling station in Paris, France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe - RTS13IKB REUTERS French Presidential Election Front National leader Marine Le Pen casts her ballot Marine Le Pen (L), French National Front (FN) political party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, casts her ballot in the first round of 2017 French presidential election at a polling station in Henin-Beaumont, northern France, April 23, 2017. At R, Mayor of Henin-Beaumont Steeve Briois. REUTERS/Charles Platiau - RTS13IEI REUTERS French Presidential Election Early ballots are read as results continue to come in Reuters French Presidential Election Macron supporters react as results come in early in the evening AP French Presidential Election Supporters of Front National leader Marine Le Pen cheer as early results come in Reuters French Presidential Election Alamy Live News. J21KYW Paris, France. 23rd April 2017. Marcon supporters wave French and EU flags after the announcement that he is the leader in the exit polls after the polling stations have been closed. Supporters of Emmanuel Macron, the Presidential candidate from the social liberal political party En Marche! celebrate the exit polls, that see him in first place, ahead of Marine Le Pen from the Front National in the first round of the French Presidential election. Credit: Michael Debets/Alamy Live News This is an Alamy Live News image and may not be part of your current Alamy deal . If you are unsure, please contact our sales team to check. Alamy French Presidential Election Front National leader Marine Le Pen takes to the stage to address her supporters as fans cheer Reuters French Presidential Election Emmanuel Macron greets supporters on Sunday night AP French Presidential Election Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte Trogneux celebrate the incoming results EPA

Brigitte cites Montaigne to explain their relationship. “We rub and polish each other’s brains,” she said in a 2015 Canal Plus TV programme, echoing the French Renaissance philosopher’s words. The couple thrives on intellectual confrontation and shares a passion for literature, people who know them say. Brigitte Macron declined to be interviewed by Bloomberg.

Like President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who in the 1970s made his wife Anne-Aymone a key figure in his presidential life, Macron has pledged that if he’s elected, his wife will have an official status — a first for France — “but without a salary.” It’s a plan Brigitte backs.

“I’ve been involved in everything at his side for 20 years,” Brigitte told reporters in October during a meeting in Strasbourg. “You always seem surprised that spouses are beside their husbands. It’s time for things to evolve. That’s where we belong.”