Bernadette Chirac, the steel-willed former first lady of France, has died. She was 93. She spent 12 years at the Élysée Palace from 1995 to 2007 beside President Jacques Chirac while building her own political power in rural Corrèze and turning a children’s hospital charity into a national institution. President Emmanuel Macron confirmed her death Saturday, saying he and his wife Brigitte had learned with “great sadness” of the passing of a woman who marked French history beside Jacques Chirac, served the Corrèze region where she was elected and changed the lives of millions of patients through her charitable work.