The bikini-wearing, chain-smoking journalist who could be the next Brigitte Macron: TV host Lea Salame is being touted as the next French First Lady - as her dashing 45-year-old husband Raphael Glucksmann eyes up the presidency

Daily Mail​

a day ago

She's landed one of French TV's most coveted news jobs, but Léa Salamé's thriving career could come to an end if her partner's takes off.
Last month, it was announced that the Beirut-born presenter would succeed Anne-Sophie Lapix as host of the evening news show 20 Heures on France 2 in a major programming shake-up.
No sooner was the 45-year-old's appointment confirmed that Lea was forced to defend herself against critics who felt crowning her 'Queen of the 8pm' would lead to uncomfortable questions about impartiality.
This is because Lea's latest job comes after her partner, rising left-wing politician Raphael Glucksmann, signalled his intent to run for President.
While reiterating she would withdraw from political debates if required, the journalist added that 'the French are much more feminist than people think' and she has never felt reduced to the tag of 'the wife' while doing her job.
'From Emmanuel Macron to Marine Le Pen …I have never felt that in their eyes the were taking me for 'the wife of….',' Lea's statement read. 'Times have changed and the French, including politicians, are much more feminist than people think.'
As the race to succeed Emmanuel Macron heats up, however, there's increasing interest in the country's hottest new 'power couple' - after Raphael led his Socialist-backed Place Publique party during last June's European Parliament elections.
If he is elected, Lea would succeed Brigitte Macron, 72, as the country's new bikini-wearing, chain-smoking First Lady - with a track record of asking the tough questions on-air.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1979, Hala Léa is the daughter of former Lebanese minister Ghassan Salame and Mary Boghossian, who is Armenian and belongs to a family of jewellers. She has a younger sister Louma, 44, who works as an exhibitions curator.
They were forced to flee the country after the civil war, when Lea was five, and relocated to Paris where the future broadcaster attended school and university.
Describing her childhood, Ghassan - Lebanon's former Minister of Culture - told French newspaper Liberation that his older daughter was 'rebellious, wanted a motorbike, to be on TV'.
'I wanted her to succeed at school and not take drugs,' the Lebanese politician continued. 'As for the rest, control wasn't my thing.'
Alluding to Lea's 'difficult teenage years,' he said: 'It's better to have a difficult time as a teenager. Becoming a teenager again at 40 is terrible. It's not aesthetic.'
In 2001, Lea - who was studying at the prestigious French university Sciences Po - travelled to New York for a six-month internship after her father, then the Lebanese Minister of Culture, 'pushed Lea to study there'.
Shortly after she arrived, with stars in her eyes, Lea witnessed the horrific 9/11 terror attacks that, ultimately, led to her pursuing a career in political journalism.
Her first job was as an intern working with French TV journalist Jean-Pierre Elkabbach on the La Chaine parlementaire network.
Elkabbach, who took Lea under his wing as a favour to her father, described her as a 'big, 23-year-old baby fresh out of Sciences Po' when he first met her.
'She was shy at first, introverted, but introverted like a flower just waiting to bloom,' he told Paris Match.
In September 2006, Lea began working for the then-newly created international TV news France 24 where she presented the evening news segment La Soiree with Antoine Cormery.
She moved to i>Tele in 2010 and covered the 2012 French presidential election for the channel as the host of a political show. Her sharp interviewing style and no-nonsense demeanour saw Lea evolve into one of the country's most recognisable broadcasters.
Since 2014, Lea has hosted the 7.50am interview for radio channel France Inter. Over the course of her career, she has also conducted high-profile interviews for the French edition of GQ - including speaking to essayist and historian Jacques Attali and the late, great human rights lawyer Henri Leclerc.
She met her now-husband on the set of France 2's talk show On n'est pas couché on November 14, 2015 - less than one year after she took over presenting duties from Natacha Polony.
Raphael, the dashing Jewish politician, appeared on the programme one day after he'd laid his father, renowned philosopher and essayist Andrew Glucksman, to rest.
French magazine Gala reported that a 'connection' between the firebrand journalist and the politician 'was born that evening' and, by early 2016, they were in a committed relationship.
Six months later, Lea fell pregnant and they welcomed their son, Gabriel, in March 2017. She is also a stepmother to Raphael's first child, son Alexandre Glucksmann, who was born in 2012 from his previous relationship with Ukrainian-Georgian politician Eka Zgouladze.
Lea routinely shares snippets from their life together on her Instagram account, which boasts over 205,000 followers, along with snippets from her most popular interviews over the years.
She has faced off against both former French presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy during an illustrious career that was rewarded with the distinction of being France's best interviewer in 2015.
'I always thought I would be at a disadvantage when I became a television host, 15 years ago, because all the other women were blue-eyed, French blondes,' Lea told Arab News, reflecting on her early concerns that her background would hold her back at work.
'I thought that because of the differences between them and me, I would never make it,' she continued. 'It took me a while to understand that these very differences, including the fact that I was Lebanese, spontaneous and a bit bold, were responsible for my actions — such as when I told (French President Francois) Hollande that he must be joking.'
She was referring to one of her most memorable on-screen moments when Lea retorted 'you must be joking' in response to Hollande's comment about refugees that was widely talked-about.
Lea's fiercest critics say her combative interviewing style borders on disrespect, but others have praised her strong temperament and 'dynamism'.
French journalist Marc Fauvelle, who worked with Lea at i>Tele, praised her professionalism but highlighted she has a 'princess-like side' in an interview with Paris Match around the same time that Lea was rising up the ranks.
Her decades-long career has also seen controversy after Lea was criticised for her comments about alcohol consumption during an episode of her late-night talk show Quelle époque that airs on France 2.
Last May, French actor and comedian Artus shared that he had quit smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol during an appearance on the show, to which Lea replied: 'Ah, you've become annoying.'
Like Artus, who suggested Lea had demonstrated a 'very French' reaction, several viewers called the presenter out for normalising drinking culture in comments that were branded insensitive.
She addressed the backlash during a subsequent episode of the show as Lea declared: 'I'll stop making jokes, I'll leave them to you.'
Clarifying that she was not making 'an apology for alcohol', Lea said the incident forced her to confront how a throwaway remark had 'opened a real societal debate' while reflecting on the 'scale of the reaction' to her joke.
Days later, however, Lea found herself at the centre of a storm after she interviewed Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche about her experiences of sexual assault and harassment while working in the entertainment industry.
Referring to the Chocolat star's interview with left-wing publication Libération, she said: 'You tell everything, in fact, the touching, the kiss that a director forced on you, that other director who groped you by force in your dressing room.
'But you say: 'Very quickly, I said no, that's enough, I have my lover,'' Lea, a popular host on the France Inter radio station, continued. 'You had the courage to say no…Where others let themselves be done.'
Lea's fiercest critics say her combative interviewing style borders on disrespect, but others have praised her strong temperament and 'dynamism'
This statement was swiftly condemned by survivors of sexual violence, who said Lea's message amounted to 'victim blaming' that could cause a 'reversal of guilt' in messages posted on X/Twitter.
One translated tweet read: 'I was raped at the age of seven by a guy who was 17. Obviously I didn't have the 'courage to say no'.
'The hierarchy between good and bad victims and the blaming reinforce VSS (Violences Sexistes et Sexuelles or 'Sexist and Sexual Violence'),' the X user continued.
Another said: 'Personally, I said no, kindly, more firmly, jokingly, crying, getting angry, every day, for almost six months. So, I don't think I give a damn about Léa Salamé's mediocre opinion.'
Léa's comments were also criticized by Elodie Jouneau, a well-regarded historian and feminist, as well as Emmanuelle Dancourt, a journalist and the president of France's #MeTooMedia, and Sarah Legrain, a politician and member of France's left-wing party LFI, HuffPost France reported.
'No, Léa Salamé, there aren't good victims who have the courage to say no and bad ones who 'let it happen'', Legrain wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. 'There's only one culprit: the aggressor, period.'
Despite their status as a 'power couple', Raphael - a Member of European Parliament - and Lea are both notoriously private about their relationship.
Speaking to ELLE magazine's French edition last year, Raphael remarked that the only 'publlic photo of us was taken in Cannes in 2017' as he revealed he admires 'politicians of the past' who have managed to keep their personal lives out of the spotlight.
Despite their overlapping career paths, the father-of-two said they try their best to 'compartmentalise'.
'She has a great career, and the moment we cross those boundaries, it would jeopardise our trajectories,' Raphael, who is eyeing the French presidency, added. 'Not exposing ourselves and respecting each other's space is what makes our relationship strong. These are two destinies, not a fusion.'
However, these destinies will become inextricably wound up in each other should Raphael, the leader of France's Socialist Party, triumph in the 2027 French presidential elections.
As the country's Premiere Dame, Lea might find questions of impartiality within the context of her journalism career impossible to side-step.