Penelope Fillon
| Penelope Fillon | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Municipal Councillor of Solesmes, Sarthe | |
|
Assumed office 2014 |
|
| Preceded by | François Fillon |
| Spouse of the Prime Minister of France | |
|
In office 17 May 2007 – 10 May 2012 |
|
| Prime Minister | François Fillon |
| Preceded by | Marie-Laure de Villepin |
| Succeeded by | Brigitte Ayrault |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Penelope Kathryn Clarke 31 July 1955 Llanover, Wales |
| Political party |
Union for a Popular Movement (before 2015) Republicans (2015–present) |
| Spouse(s) | François Fillon (m. 1980) |
| Children | 5 |
| Parents | Colin & Glenys Clarke |
| Alma mater |
University College London University of Bristol |
Penelope Kathryn Fillon (née Clarke; born 31 July 1955) is the wife of French politician and former Prime Minister of France François Fillon. She was the Spouse of the Prime Minister of France from 17 May 2007 to 10 May 2012. Born and raised in Wales, Fillon is a graduate of the University College London and the University of Bristol Law School. She worked as an English teacher at a secondary school in France in the late 1970s, where she met her future husband. François and Penelope Fillon married in 1980 and have five children. They are Catholic.
Throughout her husband's political career, she has remained fairly uninvolved in national politics and has mostly stayed out of the public eye, and has been labelled "discreet" by the media. Despite her reputation as being private, Fillon ran for a seat on the municipal council of the Solesmes, Sarthe commune in which she and her husband reside. When François Fillon began running for the French presidency in 2017, she emerged in the public eye to campaign for her husband.
Penelope Fillon rose to prominence in January 2017, when French newspaper Le Canard enchaîné published an article in which she was accused of being paid €500,000 in public money over eight years as her husband's "assistant" while performing no or very little work. The public outcry that followed led the controversy to be labelled "Penelopegate" by some, despite her husband denying any wrongdoing.
Penelope Kathryn Clarke was born on 31 July 1955 in Llanover, Monmouthshire, Wales, United Kingdom. The daughter of George "Colin" Clarke, an English solicitor, and Glenys, a Wales native, she considers herself "Anglo-Welsh."
Fillon attended primary and secondary school at King Henry VIII School in Abergavenny, studying French, German, and English. She went on to attend University College London, earning a degree in French and German. She spent her final year before earning her degree as a teaching assistant of English at a middle school in Le Mans, France. It was there she met François Fillon for the first time. She described the encounter in 2007:
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Wikipedia