Mazarine Pingeot, the French novelist, journalist, and philosophy lecturer at Sciences Po Bordeaux, was born on December 18, 1974.
However, she experienced something of a second birth on November 3, 1994 – the day her real identity was finally revealed to the rest of the world in a sensational edition of the weekly news magazine Paris Match.
That day, one million French people headed to newsstands to get their copy to gawp at the exclusive paparazzi pictures of her alongside former socialist president François Mitterrand.
“People had to go to five or six different kiosks or drive 10km just to get a copy. It was the only topic of discussion. People wanted to see,” said photographer Pascal Rostain, who sold the pictures to Paris Match.
Shutting out the world
The images testified to what, until then, only a small circle of people knew: that Mazarine was Mitterrand’s illegitimate daughter, a fact he had never publicly acknowledged.
Her childhood was closely managed by members of France’s secret service, supervised by Christian Prouteau, who constantly monitored her every move and ensured her famous father’s visits remained a secret from the rest of the world.
She lived in undisclosed locations and told people her father was a lawyer (his former job) when pressed to provide information about her family background.
“I've always been torn between secrecy and truth. I didn't want to give in to lies,” she said.
It was difficult for them to coexist. I think you can keep a secret without lying, but you have to keep quiet.”
Mazarine’s mother is Anne Pingeot, an art historian specialising in 19th-century French sculpture, who was a curator of that department at the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay.
She was Mitterrand’s mistress from the 1960s – he had married Danielle Gouze in 1944, with whom he had three children: Pascal (who died aged two months), Jean-Christophe and Gilbert.
Read more: Charles Aznavour: Grit and self-belief made the ‘French Frank Sinatra’
Discreet locations
Mazarine Pingeot lived in an apartment on rue Jacob, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, and close to Mitterrand’s official residence on rue de Bièvre. He would often pay her visits. Mazarine was just six when her father became president in 1981.
He demanded secrecy from all those who knew of her existence, including several aides, politicians, his personal chauffeur and Mazarine’s school teacher.
In 1983, Anne and Mazarine moved to an apartment on quai Branly kept under the name of Laurence Soudet, one of Mitterrand’s personal aides.
A team of 10 secret service agents was responsible for the protection of both Mazarine and Anne. It was called the ‘Jaguars’, although Mazarine preferred to nickname them the ‘Zorros’.
She spent portions of her childhood in other secret or very discreet locations, including a property in Souzy-la-Briche (Essonne) and a cottage in Gordes (Vaucluse).
Her parentage was officially certified on a legal document on January 25, 1984 and kept in a safe at the Elysée Palace.
However, the secret became harder to keep as the years went on, as journalists and writers threatened to reveal her existence in explosive books or tell-all articles.
Mitterrand always managed to avoid their release, often by applying political pressure, intimidation and even wiretapping journalists. Many editors also felt the president was entitled to keep his private life under wraps.
Read more: French music legend Françoise Hardy dies at age of 80
Right timing
When Paris Match bought the pictures which led to Mazarine’s identity finally being revealed, Mitterrand was made aware and is said to have tacitly agreed to their publication. They depicted the pair by the front door of a famous restaurant in Paris after lunch.
At the time, Mitterrand was critically ill and his second term as president was nearing an end. He died not long after, in January 1996, from prostate cancer, a condition he and his doctors had also concealed for most of his presidency.
It is said that Mitterrand was keen for Mazarine’s identity to be made public knowledge before he died, and on November 3, 1994, this is exactly what happened.
Mazarine was 19 at the time.
“That day, I felt like crap. I felt like I was being looked at like a circus animal. It was horrible,” she said in an interview for the release of her 2023 novel, Le Salon de massage.
As a child, she was a student at the elite Lycée Henri-IV in Paris and then at the École Normale Supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud (now named the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon), a highly prestigious school from which she graduated In 1997.
She subsequently worked as a teaching assistant at the Université de Provence Aix-Marseille I, a journalist (writing for Elle between 1999 and 2001) and a television anchor.
Aged 20, she signed a publishing deal with Julliard. She later conceded that three-quarters of the 60,000 copies sold of her first novel, lambasted by critics, were due to her link with Mitterrand.
Identity quest
Questions about identity, intimacy, truth and the search for oneself are recurrent themes across her 18 novels.
In February 2005, she published her fourth book, Bouche Cousue (Not a Word), a personal account of her childhood, which sold 200,000 copies.
“I had to put words where I hadn't been able to put them before. This book freed me from a heavy burden,” she told Le Monde in 2024.
She has been a literary critic for newspapers and TV channels and has also prefaced several books, mainly about her father, mother or their relationship.
“It amuses me to see that even those who try to be sincere get it wrong. They build a personality in retrospect but miss the point,” she told Elle magazine in 2003.
In 2016, Mazarine Marie Pingeot changed her name to Mazarine Marie Mitterrand Pingeot – the ‘Mitterrand’ abbreviated to simply ‘M’ on the cover of her latest book Vivre Sans.
“It is my official signature now. There is this ‘M’. For this book, more philosophical and contrasting with my fictional novels, I found it interesting to be at ease with all of my family names” she told TV show C à vous.
Read more: Barbara: The elfin singer, actress and French national treasure
What they say about her
“The writing is pitifully insignificant, sometimes reminiscent of a teenage girl's diary, sometimes of an overly long essay by the same girl. To quote it would be too cruel; let's not. As for substance, there is none.”
Pierre Marcelle, journalist at Libération, in a 1998 article accusing publisher Julliard of signing Mazarine Pingeot for her name and relationship to Mitterrand rather than literary talent.
“She came to school telling everyone that her father was the President of the French Republic. I told her: “But wait, I'm the Queen of England.”
Julie Beressi, a friend from primary school.
“Mazarine, I'm writing this name for the first time. I'm intimidated by this new character on earth that is you… Later you'll get to know me. Grow up, but not too fast. Soon you'll open your eyes. What a surprise, the world! You'll wonder about it until the end. Anne is your mother. You'll see that we couldn't have chosen better, you and me. I send you my love.”
The first letter François Mitterrand wrote to Mazarine, on January 7, 1975.
“It should not have been simple. I was very surprised by her maturity and how she handled all of it.”
Christian Prouteau, head of security at the Elysée Palace at the time, on how Mazarine fared with the secret service officers who protected her day and night.
