You may have heard the name Gauthier Destenay mentioned in the press recently but who is he?
Gauthier Destenay is the Belgium husband of Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister. Mr Bettel is the only current openly gay world leader. That would make Mr Destenay Luxembourg’s First Gentleman.
The couple got married in a private ceremony in 2015 after being together since 2010. They got engaged in 2014. If you’re wondering who asked who, in an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Mr Bettel revealed it was Gauthier who asked first.
So what does Gauthier Destenay do for a living?
Well, Gauthier is an architect and works for the Belgium architecture company, A3 Architecture. He received his qualification in 2003 and became a partner at the A3 company in 2013. He works as an associate architect.
Does Gauthier appear with Xavier at every event?
Just like the spouses of every head of state, Gauthier attends events which are appropriate for partners to attend, however, Xavier has made it clear that he will not attend events where he and his partner are not welcome.
During an event earlier in 2017 Xavier recalled an incident where an invitation was actually removed when the host found out he had a male partner.
The unnamed country’s officials asked that he not to mention the fact that he was gay, to which Xavier said he would purposely bring up and speak out about homosexuality. The invitation was swiftly removed.
