--- title: Woman Mistakes Angela Merkel for Wife of Emmanuel Macron description: An earnest 101-year-old woman accidentally confused German chancellor Angela Merkel for French First Lady Brigitte Macron. canonical: https://time.com/5452148/woman-thinks-angela-merkel-is-emmanuel-macron-wife/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-12T19:11:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-06-24T06:56:36.743Z og:title: Woman Mistakes Angela Merkel for Emmanuel Macron's Wife og:description: It was an honest mix-up og:url: https://time.com/5452148/woman-thinks-angela-merkel-is-emmanuel-macron-wife/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc017c45f2ca4e26d/69893ed6bc6cfc32233e769f/woman-mistakes-angela-merkel-for-briggitte-macron.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: French President Emmanuel Macron Welcomes Head Of States For The Commemoration Of The 100th Anniversary Of The End Of WWI og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Woman Mistakes Angela Merkel for Emmanuel Macron's Wife twitter:description: It was an honest mix-up twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc017c45f2ca4e26d/69893ed6bc6cfc32233e769f/woman-mistakes-angela-merkel-for-briggitte-macron.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Woman Made the Honest Mistake of Thinking Angela Merkel Was Emmanuel Macron's Wife > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: This Video Is No Longer Available [Watch (HLS stream): This Video Is No Longer Available](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8) (0:10)  _Published 2026-06-23. The same but different_  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Nov 12, 2018 7:11 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Nov 12, 2018 7:11 PM UTC An earnest 101-year-old woman accidentally confused [German chancellor Angela Merkel](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2015-angela-merkel/) for [French First Lady Brigitte Macron](http://time.com/4905512/brigitte-macron-wrinkles/) during a ceremony that honored the French-German reconciliation and the 1918 armistice of World War I. Chancellor Merkel and [French president Emmanuel Macron](http://time.com/emmanuel-macron-president-france-interview/)‘s cordial demeanor was so friendly that one elderly French bystander who shook their hands mistook Merkel for Macron’s wife Brigitte. “Mr Macron, it’s not possible, a little woman like me shaking hands with the President of the Republic, it’s fantastic,” the centenarian said to the French president before turning to Merkel and addressing her as “Madame Macron. Merkel then told her that she was “the Chancellor of Germany;” according to the _Independent_, Merkel explained her title to the woman twice, in French. Evidently the woman did not have anything to say to these statements, besides exclaiming: “it’s fantastic.” Watch the full confusion of Chancellor Angela Merkel with First Lady Brigitte Macron below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5452148/woman-thinks-angela-merkel-is-emmanuel-macron-wife/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5452148/woman-thinks-angela-merkel-is-emmanuel-macron-wife/"},"headline":"Woman Made the Honest Mistake of Thinking Angela Merkel Was Emmanuel Macron's Wife","datePublished":"2018-11-12T19:11:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-24T06:56:36.743Z","description":"The same but different","url":"https://time.com/5452148/woman-thinks-angela-merkel-is-emmanuel-macron-wife/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc017c45f2ca4e26d/69893ed6bc6cfc32233e769f/woman-mistakes-angela-merkel-for-briggitte-macron.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc017c45f2ca4e26d/69893ed6bc6cfc32233e769f/woman-mistakes-angela-merkel-for-briggitte-macron.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"French President Emmanuel Macron Welcomes Head Of States For The Commemoration Of The 100th Anniversary Of The End Of WWI","caption":"French President Emmanuel Macron Welcomes Head Of States For The Commemoration Of The 100th Anniversary Of The End Of WWI","creditText":"Antoine Gyori - Corbis—Corbis via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5452148/woman-thinks-angela-merkel-is-emmanuel-macron-wife/","name":"Woman Made the Honest Mistake of Thinking Angela Merkel Was Emmanuel Macron's Wife"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Video Is No Longer Available","description":"The same but different","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fKodeUO6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-06-23T15:00:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5452148/woman-thinks-angela-merkel-is-emmanuel-macron-wife/","duration":"PT10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5452148/woman-thinks-angela-merkel-is-emmanuel-macron-wife/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```