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[+] -7 points 1 week ago (12 children)

Am I the only person that doesn't see a problem here?

I mean sure it's weird. People do weird things. It's definitely weird enough to gossip about and make memes about.

Has anyone been harmed though? Is there a power imbalance?

Daughter might not be thrilled but it's not abusive.

It's fine to have narrow ideas about who you might have a relationship with, but let others do as they wish provided they're not harming anyone.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago (7 children)

    From the Wikipedia article it's not clear if she waited until he was an adult to pursue the relationship or not.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (6 children)

    They had some kind of relationship while he was at school. It's not clear whether it was sexual.

    Age of consent in France is 15. So he was already an adult in this context.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago* (1 child)

    That is wildly too young for consent with an adult, imo, but I'm no expert.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago

    I only know this from a Quebecois perspective, I believe 16 is the age of consent in Quebec, but I doubt any of my cousins were still virgins by the time they were 14. I'm not sure on the logistics of this, but they were very promiscuous even at that age.

    So absolutely none of this is shocking to me. This is just the way French people are.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago (1 child)

    I'm seeing a 14-year gap between the time they initially met and the time they married. The first three of those years would have been criminal, but I haven't actually seen anything saying the relationship commenced within that time period.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    That's what I initially thought but I did some reading and it's not really the case.

    Firstly, the age of consent in france is 15, and the attitudes of the French people are much more relaxed in this area, and I can respect that.

    However, it's likely there was some kind of relationship when he was 15 and she was 39. There's no evidence that it was sexual but I kinda assume that it was. His parents sent him to a school in Paris to break them up. I can't be bothered linking the source but it's mentioned on the wikipedia page and you can click through to read the references.

    On balance, it seems no laws were broken and it seems unlikely that either party was harmed. However, the early years of their relationship were certainly dubious ethically.

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