Meet Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, Justin Trudeau's wife

CTVNews.ca Staff, Published Tuesday, October 20, 2015 3:48PM EDT, Last Updated Tuesday, October 20, 2015 4:13PM EDT, Source

Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau has mostly stayed out of the limelight as her husband Justin Trudeau rose up the Liberal ranks and led the party to a historic victory Monday night. 

But now that the Trudeau family is moving back to 24 Sussex Dr., Gregoire-Trudeau will have to get used to constant attention – and scrutiny.

Here’s what you need to know about Canada’s newest “first lady.”

Her career

Gregoire-Trudeau studied commerce at McGill University, thinking she would follow in her father’s footsteps as a stockbroker. But after realizing that was not the life for her, she switched to communications at l’Université de Montréal.

After a few years in that field, she decided she wanted to study radio and television and completed another degree at École de radio et télévision Promédia in Montreal. She then landed a job as an arts and culture reporter.

A few months after marrying Trudeau, she was hired as the Quebec cultural reporter for CTV’s eTalk, where she says the stories she enjoyed most were those about celebrity charity work rather than gossip segments.

Struggles with bulimia

Gregoire-Trudeau has been open about her struggle with bulimia, which she says started when she was about 17. The illness continued until Gregoire-Trudeau was in her early 20s, when she eventually reached out to her mother for help to get into treatment.

Gregoire-Trudeau has been speaking out about eating disorders, as well as other issues she’s passionate about, including women’s self-esteem and violence against women.

"I've had my own issues that I've put forward, and have advocated for the past 12 to 13 years," Gregoire-Trudeau told CTV’s Question Period last weekend.  “And a lot of them are focused on self-esteem in young women."

How she and Trudeau met

Sophie grew up as an only child in the same affluent Montreal neighbourhood of Mont-Royal, where the Trudeau boys lived. She went to school with Trudeau’s younger brother, Michel, who died in an avalanche in 1998, but only knew Justin as her friend’s older brother.

In June 2003, Trudeau and Gergoire met again at a Montreal Grand Prix charity ball, where they were co-hosts of the event. They began dating a few months later, became engaged in October 2004, and married in May 2005.

Her family

The couple’s first child, Xavier James, was born in October, 2007, and a daughter, Ella Grace, followed in February, 2009. The couple had son Hadrien in March, 2014.

Gregoire-Trudeau has been a stay-at-home mother for several years and says she lives a normal life of making her kids’ lunches, walking them to school, and cuddling in bed on weekend mornings.

Gregoire-Trudeau has said she wants her children to grow up bilingual as she and Trudeau did, so she makes a point of always speaking to her children in both French and English.

Charity work

In 2006, Gregoire-Trudeau travelled with her mother-in-law, Margaret Trudeau, to Ethiopia as part of WaterCan (now called WaterAid), a Canadian charitable organization that builds wells in underserved African villages.

That trip was documented in a CTV special called "A Window Opens: Margaret and Sophie in Ethiopia.”

Gregoire-Trudeau has also served as national ambassador for Plan Canada’s “Because I am a Girl” initiative, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Dove Pay Beauty Forward, the Canadian Mental Health Association, and other charities.

She told CTV’s Question Period that gender equality and children’s rights remain issues that are “close to her heart.”

She has also spoken out about the condition of Canada’s aboriginal communities and the need for an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women – all issues that she promised to push forward if her husband was elected prime minister.

Her love of yoga and music

Gregoire-Trudeau has long been dedicated to the practice of hatha yoga, which she began studying in 2006, before her first son was born.

Since then, she has completed her yoga instructor training and certification to become a children’s yoga teacher. 

In her younger days, Gregoire-Trudeau studied classical flute and guitar and danced ballet, jazz, as well as African dance.

Her vow to remain grounded

In the week before election day, Gregoire-Trudeau told CTV that even if her husband was elected prime minister, things would not change much for her, and that she and her family would remain “real and authentic and grounded.”

“Around us will change. But within, we’ll stay who we are,” she said.

And as for how she plans to protect her children from the attacks her husband will likely face, she said, “You learn to distance yourself from the criticism.

"…We have taught our children that meanness gets you nowhere in life."

Sophie Gregorie-Trudeau watches her husband,

Justin Trudeau, deliver his victory speech on election night.

Sophie Gregorie-Trudeau watches her husband, Justin Trudeau, deliver his victory speech on election night.

God be with Al Yuh Canadians.

Change with a progressive approach, Nehru.  

WEll a CHANGE Guyana style will cripple any Country.

This is Canada, Nehru ... not Guyana.

I am Liberal and have supported the party even in the trying periods.

Seriously DG, I think he is too inexperienced and could be a liability. Then again he may prove me wrong.

Every individual has short-comings.

Specifically in this situation, while Justin Trudeau is young he as the experience to effectively work with individuals to reach common goals.

Do you think Rob Ford will be in his Cabinet?

Now, now Nehru ... that is surely for laughter.

I just love the Guy. Canada has never been so Funny.

Indeed Nehru.

Ford is staunch Conservative.

• 
• Harper and then Toronto mayor Rob Ford leave a campaign rally together in Brampton, Ont., on April 29, 2011. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

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Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau Is A Journalist, Activist, Yoga Teacher, And Justin's Wife

Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau and Justin Trudeau share a moment on election night. (Photo: Kevin Van Paassen/Bloomerg via Getty)

Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau is an activist, TV personality and yoga practitioner, among other things.

She's also married to Justin Trudeau, Canada's prime minister-designate, whose Liberal Party was elected to a majority government on Monday night.

Grégoire-Trudeau was born in Montreal in 1975. She studied business at McGill before obtaining a bachelor of arts in communications at l'Université de Montreal, according to a bio.

From there, she worked as a personal shopper at Holt Renfrew and other jobs in advertising and sales, ahead of entering broadcast school.

That path brought her to a job writing copy for a news ticker (the "worst job ever," she told Women on the Fence in 2011) before she found work as an entertainment reporter.

A fateful meeting with CTV staffers at a 2005 event helped her secure a position as a Quebec correspondent for etalk, where she favoured covering celebrities' charity work over gossip about them.

Grégoire-Trudeau has a philanthropic streak all her own. She's been open about her struggle with bulimia, which started when she was17 and carried on in her 20s, The Windsor Star reported in 2008.

"Anything that we didn’t have in the house, I wanted to eat," she told the newspaper. "I was just always hungry, hungry for something that wasn’t food, it turns out."

Grégoire-Trudeau parlayed her experience with the condition into work with an organization called Clinique BACA, which raises awareness of eating disorders.

The Quebecer has also served as an ambassador for Because I Am a Girl, a non-profit group working to end gender inequality. Other organizations she has worked with include Girls for the Cure, the Women's Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Canadian Cancer Association and the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau applauds during Justin Trudeau's speech to supporters in Montreal on election night.

In 2012 she also became a yoga instructor, The Globe and Mail reported.

She loves how the practice helps people in "expanding and exploring our consciousness," she told the blog This Mom Loves, and she delivers speeches replete with Sanskrit invocations.

She and Justin became a pair in a roundabout way, according to an interview with Women on the Fence blog. Grégoire-Trudeau had been a classmate of Justin's brother Michel, who died in an avalanche in 1998.

Sophie and Justin hosted a charity event together in 2003. Sparks flew, but they didn't immediately begin dating. She tried to contact him via email but he didn't respond.

Months went by before they encountered each other — and she refused to give him her number. But he managed to find it anyway, and it wasn't long before they became an item, marrying in 2005.

The pair has been open about the strain that political life can place on a relationship. Trudeau has said that Sophie "hates" his job sometimes, and all the criticism that can entail.

But they have learned how to cope with it together, and they've learned lessons they pass on to their kids, Xavier, 8, Ella-Grace Margaret, 6, and Hadrien, 1.

"Learn to distance yourself from the criticism," Grégoire-Trudeau told CTV News on Sunday. "We have taught our children that meanness gets you nowhere in life."

On election night, Trudeau thanked many people for his party's victory, but Sophie's name came first. Earlier in the campaign, he shared emphatic words for his wife on his Twitter account:

Justin Trudeau ✔ @JustinTrudeau

Merci #MonAmour (et je veux bien dire Sophie!) pour tout le porte-à-porte et le travail que tu fais durant cette campagne! #TLMEP

The tweet translates as, "Thank you my love (and, I should say, Sophie!) for all your door-knocking and the work you have done in this campaign."