The current favourite to become the next president of France has been forced to deny rumours that he is enjoying an extra-marital gay affair with a high-profile media chief.

Emmanuel Macron, the 39-year-old former economy minister, has been rumoured to be seeing Mathieu Gallet, the 40-year-old boss of Radio France.

This is despite Mr Macron being married for the last decade to Brigitte Trogneux, who is 20 years older than him.

French Presidential election favourite Emmanuel Macron, pictured, 39, has been forced to deny he is having a 'gay affair'

Mr Macron, who was alleged to be having an affair with Radio France boss Mathieu Gallet, pictured, 40, said he had 'nothing to hide'

Addressing the rumours head on during a presidential campaign rally on Monday night, Mr Macron said: ‘I am who I am – I have never had anything to hide.

‘I hear people saying that I have a secret life or something. It’s not nice for Brigitte. Because I share all my days and nights with her, she asks me how I manage it.’

On Sunday, Jean-Luc Melenchon, one of Mr Macron’s rivals to become president in May, used a hologram of himself at a rally in Paris.

Mr Macron said: ‘If they say I have a double life with Mathieu Gallet, it must be my hologram, but it can’t be me.’

The Russian state news agency Sputnik has made allegations that Mr Macron is backed by a homosexual lobby.

They quoted French MP Nicolas Dhuicq, of the conservative Republican Party, saying: ‘Concerning his private life, it is becoming known….He is supported by a rich, gay lobby.’

The interview has prompted fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to interfere in the French election.

Mr Macron, right, has been married to Brigitte Trogneux, left, who is 20 years older than him, for a decade

Putin is a friend of Francois Fillon, the conservative Republican candidate who is currently at the centre of sleaze allegations involving setting up fake jobs to family members, including his Welsh-born wife, Penelope.

Mr Macron, who served in France’s current Socialist government, has become increasingly popular as the Fillon scandal deepens.

He is now predicted to make the second round run-off against Marine Le Pen, of the far-right National Front, and then win by a landslide.

The boyish Mr Macron has particular appeal to young people in France, who are impressed by his modern, anti-establishment image.

He is a former tax inspector and Rothschild banker whose business activities saw him become a multi-millionaire.

He met Ms Trogneux as a 15-year-old when she was his teacher at La Providence high school in Amiens, northern France.

His parents tried to split the couple up, but they stayed together until he was 18, and they married in 2007.

The couple now live with Ms Trogneux’s three children from a previous marriage.