The fabulous destinies of Amélie and Heiko: co-first EU spouse

FALMOUTH, England — For the EU’s two presidents, the social obligations of politics require a sort of strange double-date, and it’s on public display this weekend at the G7 summit.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel had been in their jobs for barely three months before the coronavirus pandemic imposed social distancing and travel restrictions that have effectively suspended normal political hobnobbing for over a year.

That meant virtually no public attention for their partners — von der Leyen’s husband, Heiko, and Michel’s partner, Amelie Derbaudrenghien — until this weekend’s summit on England’s west coast.

On Friday, as the leaders arrived, the EU’s co-first spouses could be seen elbow-bumping with the newlywed summit hosts, Boris and Carrie Johnson, posing for group photos on the beach, and attending a dinner at the Eden Project, an indoor rainforest.

Von der Leyen and Michel have had a tense relationship, but so far there have been no signs those strains have carried over to their partners.

The couples are of different generations.

The von der Leyens, both medical doctors by training, are in their 60s and come from aristocratic German families. They married in 1986 and have seven grown children. The couple lives in Hanover, Germany, with von der Leyen using a sleeping cabinet in her office when she is in Brussels. Heiko von der Leyen now works in medical research.

Michel and Derbaudrenghien, who are in their 40s, have long followed government careers and met when they were both working on development issues.

He’s a former prime minister of Belgium and she now works as an adviser in the cabinet of Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmès. They have two daughters, born in 2016 and 2019, and Michel has a teenage son from a previous relationship.

Michel and Derbaudrenghien were planning to get married last year but postponed twice after COVID restrictions created political and logistical obstacles.