How French far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen’s love life was as stormy as political career & drove ex-wife to Playboy
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AS a Holocaust denier and founder of France’s far-right National Front, he was one of politics’ most controversial figures. Yesterday, Jean-Marie Le Pen, seen by some as the forerunner of the populist politics now sweeping the globe, died aged 96, “surrounded by loved ones”.
![[France's far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen died aged 96, 'surrounded by loved ones', seen above in 1985]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/fn-jean-marie-le-pen-962168742.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The firebrand politician had called the Holocaust a mere “detail of history” and spoke of “the inequality of races”. Yet he rocked the French political establishment when voters chose him to contest an unsuccessful presidential election run-off against Jacques Chirac in 2002.
![[The controversial figure with his daughter Marine Le Pen in 2013]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jean-marie-le-pen-frances-962167131.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
His daughter Marine Le Pen took over the party in 2011 and rebranded it as the more moderate National Rally. Father and daughter would eventually fall out over his extremist views as she tried to make the party electable. In 2015 Le Pen senior was suspended and stripped of his title of president. The relationship never recovered.
![[Le Pen’s political career was famously controversial, but his personal life was as stormy]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/hospital-admitted-several-weeks-photo-962165647.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
President Macron trod a diplomatic line on Jean-Marie’s passing. A message released by Élysée Palace said he was “a historic figure of the far right, he played a role in the public life of our country for nearly 70 years, which is now a matter for history to judge”.
Le Pen’s political career was famously controversial, but his personal life was as stormy. When he divorced Pierrette Lalanne — mother of his three kids — in 1987, she posed nude with a vacuum cleaner for Playboy magazine, revenge for Le Pen’s view a woman’s place was in the home.
-founder-Jean-Marie-Le-Pen-attends-a-May-Day-ceremony.jpeg?trim=50,0,51,0&quality=75&auto=webp&width=1000)
