Husband of Luxembourg's gay prime minister joins Nato leaders' wives in photo

He is the only male in the female group, anyway, he feel he is a wife too

The husband of Luxembourg’s gay prime minister posed alongside the other wives and partners of Nato leaders – for a group photo.


Gauthier Destenay, a Belgian architect, married Xavier Bettel, 44, months after Luxembourg legalised same-sex marriage, according to The Daily Mail.

And yesterday Mr Destenay joined the likes of US First Lady Melania Trump and First Lady of France Brigitte Macron in a photo.

Dressed in a black suit and grey tie, the ‘first gentleman’ stood out among the crowd of glamorous spouses.

But at the same time he looked completely at home with the women, who like him, all know the sacrifices that come with being in a relationship with a world leader.

He stood behind a grinning Mrs Trump and Emine Erdogan, the wife of Tayyip Erdogan, who is president of Turkey.

The prime minister’s husband exchanged a warm smile with Mojca Stropnik, the partner of Slovenia’s prime minister, before the group assembled.

The pair were joined by the First Lady of Iceland Thora Margret Baldvinsdottir.

Standing in front of them was the Brigitte Macron, Emine Gulbaran Erdogan, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s partner Ingrid Schulerud, Bulgarian president Rumen Radev’s partner Desislava Radeva and Belgian prime minister Charles Michel’s partner Amelie Derbaudrenghien.

Mr Bettel is the first gay EU leader to enter into a same-sex union and many took to social media to praise the groundbreaking photograph.

Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (L) and Mr Destenay (R)

One man tweeted: ‘My New hero Gauthier Destenay First Husband from Luxembourg . A big step for equality.’

And Sarai Walker wrote: ‘I LOVE that Gauthier Destenay, ‘First Gentleman of Luxembourg’ attended events for NATO spouses. Kudos to him.’