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There is a saying, often bandied about in families, that the apple does not fall far from the tree.
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apple → publish → tree
Intelligent and politically astute – Tiphaine has both campaigned for her stepfather Emmanuel Macron and stood for election herself – both are women who have carved their own paths in life.
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who → campaign → life
No one would call Brigitte Macron, 73, a shrinking violet and the same could also be said of her youngest daughter, who at 42 is a seasoned lawyer and stalwart supporter of both her mother and stepfather, who is just six years her senior.
uncertain
who → call → mother
Physically, too, mother and daughter have the same blonde hair, youthful visage and slender build, along with that distinctive toothsome smile.
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mother → have → smile
Just how alike they are, however, was thrown into sharp focus this week.
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they → throw → focus
History, it would seem, is repeating itself.
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it → seem → itself
For as Brigitte is 24 years older than Emmanuel (he was a 15-year-old schoolboy when he met 40-year-old teacher Brigitte Trogneux and soon after they began dating), Tiphaine has tumbled headlong into a love affair with a kitesurfer 20 years her junior.
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Tiphaine → meet → kitesurfer
Twenty-something Antoine Lecomte, who quite apart from being something of a high-flyer in the world of kitesurfing, studied at an elite business school and recently launched his own company manufacturing top-of-the-range kites for surfers from the desirable French seaside town of Le Touquet.
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Lecomte → study → Touquet
In Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, to give the fashionable resort its official name, Antoine, was – perhaps unsurprisingly - looking très content when the Daily Mail caught up with him this week after he returned to shore from an energetic five-hour training session on the water.
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he → give → water
Tiphaine Auzière, 42, with her 22-year-old business student boyfriend Antoine Lecomte
He is also a surfing instructor and insists their relationship is not merely a summer fling
Wearing a full wetsuit, covered in sand and brandishing a sail, the 22-year-old grinned as he admitted: ‘I can appreciate why people are interested because our relationship is very similar to that of her mother, Brigitte, and President Macron.
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relationship → insist → mother
But it was only after checking in with Tiphaine that he agreed to chat further, stressing: ‘It’s not a summer fling.
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It → check → Tiphaine
It’s love, it’s serious.
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it → ’ → ?
We have plans for the future.
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We → have → future
‘I know a lot of people in Le Touquet and they are all happy for us,’ he added.
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he → know → us
‘They say if we are happy then they are happy.
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they → say → ?
Age means nothing when you are in love.
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you → mean → love
They each shared the same video compilation, captioned with Gallic insouciance by Antoine ‘48h in ’Dam with Madam’.
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They → share → Madam
The series of clips show Antoine, who is originally from Lille but moved to Le Touquet after spending summer holidays there as a child, and Tiphaine in the Dutch city of Amsterdam where they spent a loved-up long weekend last month.
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they → show → weekend
The opening image is of the attractive couple cheek to cheek in a shopping centre, before the reel rolls through road-trip images in his white VW Campervan.
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reel → roll → Campervan
Tiphaine reclines on the bed while Antoine is at the wheel.
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Antoine → recline → wheel
Then they are seen checking into the exclusive Faralda Hotel, which is built into a 50-metre-high dockside crane.
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which → see → crane
Rooms start at £900 for the night and the three suites – named Free Spirit, Secret and Mystique – are available to book by ‘request and invitation only’.
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suites → start → request
If the age gap has raised any eyebrows, it’s not fazing either mother-of-two Tiphaine, who separated from former partner, gastroenterologist and hepatologist Antoine Choteau in January 2025, or Antoine, who tells the Daily Mail he has had two previous relationships.
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he → raise → relationships
The dashing young businessman (he was out testing sails for his fledgling company, Mission Kiteboarding, when the Daily Mail spoke to him), admits he didn’t actually know who Tiphaine was when she came to him for efoil surfing lessons at the beginning of the summer.
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she → test → summer
The couple seem loved up in the videos posted by Brigitte Macron's daughter
Her relationship is similar to that of her mother with French president Emmanuel Macron
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relationship → seem → Macron
An efoil is an electrically powered hydrofoil surfboard that allows the surfer to glide smoothly across the top of the water and Antoine is manager of Le Touquet’s efoil surf school, a business he oversees from a kiosk overlooking an estuary where Tiphaine posted a photograph of herself in a wetsuit, unzipped to reveal her back, in June this year.
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Tiphaine → power → June
‘La future James Bond girl,’ quipped one follower.
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follower → quip → ?
If the striking Tiphaine is a Bond girl, then Antoine is certainly channelling James Bond in video footage from last summer that shows him, in a suit, riding his board across the water to a nearby restaurant, carrying a silver platter of seafood to a waiting diner.
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him → channel → diner
On the subject of his new amour, Antoine says: ‘She came for some efoil lessons at the beginning of the summer, we got on and she came back a few times and then we met up at a party I was invited to.
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I → say → party
‘But I had no idea she was Brigitte Macron’s daughter until later; it doesn’t bother me, we get on really well and that is the most important thing, we make each other happy.’
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other → have → me
Antoine confessed he has been ‘reading all about us’ since news of the relationship went public at the start of the week but insisted that discovering Tiphaine’s background didn’t ‘change anything between us’.
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discovering → confess → us
He added: ‘Like I said it’s very serious, it’s not a summer relationship we have a lot of plans together.
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we → add → plans
We are going to Asia in a few weeks on business.
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We → go → business
‘She [Tiphaine] is a lawyer, and I have to develop my factory in Sri Lanka so she will help me, and we will go together.
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we → have → me
I’m hoping the business will get stronger.
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business → hop → ?
He sounds like a young man who knows what he wants, a trait that makes him more than a little like his new girlfriend’s stepfather.
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him → sound → stepfather
Emmanuel Macron first met his wife in 1992 when he was a teenage pupil at the Providence Catholic school in Amiens, north of Paris, where she taught drama.
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she → meet → drama
The pair went on to rewrite a play together, which they later admitted was the period when they fell in love.
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they → go → love
In an interview with Paris Match, Brigitte confided: ‘I could feel I was falling, he was too...’ before adding: ‘At 17, Emmanuel told me, “Whatever you do, I will marry you!”
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I → confide → you
Love took everything in its passage and led me to divorce.
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Love → take → divorce
…and 32 more, not listed.
The Aporia
