page_title: Gauthier Destenay
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Gauthier Destenay / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: English: Queen Mathilde of Belgium meeting with the First Ladies and First Gentlemen of NATO members at the Royal Castle of Laeken on Thursday, May 25, 2017. Front row (Left to right): First Lady of France Brigitte Macron, First Lady of Turkey Emine Erdoğan, First Lady of the United States Melania Trump, Mathilde, Queen of the Belgians (center), Ambassador of Norway to Belgium and wife of NATO Secretary General Ingrid Schulerud, First Lady of Bulgaria Desislava Radeva, and Amélie Derbaudrenghien of Belgium. Second Row (left to right): Luxembourg First Gentleman Gauthier Destenay, Mojca Stropnik of Slovenia (center), and Thora Margret Baldvinsdottir of Iceland.
context_page_description: Gauthier Christian Destenay is a Belgian architect who is the husband of Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel.
context_section_description: Destenay is from Belgium and has been working as an associate architect at Belgian-Luxembourg firm A3 Architecture since 2013. He graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of Liège in 2003.
  Bettel came out publicly as gay in 2008. Destenay has been in a civil union with Bettel since 2010 and appeared along with Bettel at many official events, including the Wedding of Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy.
  Destenay asked for Bettel's hand in marriage in August 2014. They were married on 15 May 2015 in a private ceremony officiated by Luxembourg city mayor Lydie Polfer in the presence of around 250 guests. Bettel became the first European Union head of government to marry a same-sex partner. The wedding was also attended by Elio Di Rupo, the former Belgian Prime Minister who was the European Union's first openly gay head of government. The ceremony was followed by a reception for 500 guests at the Cercle-Cité.
  Destenay gained attention on social media when he appeared as the only male spouse in a group portrait of world leaders' spouses and partners at the 2017 NATO summit. Destenay's name was omitted from the caption of a Facebook photo posted by the White House, even though all the other spouses were correctly labeled. The post was subsequently edited after it led to criticism and accusations of homophobia.
caption: Gauthier Destenay as First Gentleman with Queen Mathilde of Belgium and the First Ladies on the NATO members meeting, Royal Castle of Laeken.
exif: {}