- published: 27 Oct 2013
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Michèle Bennett is the ex-wife of former President for Life of Haiti, Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier. From 1980 to 1986 she was the First Lady of Haiti. She fled to exile in France with her deposed husband aboard a U.S. Air Force plane and has remained there since. She was divorced from Duvalier in 1990.
Michèle Bennett was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1950, the daughter of Ernest Bennett, a Haitian businessman (and descendant of Henri Christophe, King of Haiti) and Aurore Ligonde. Her uncle was Haiti's Roman Catholic Archbishop Monsignor François-Wolff Ligondé.
She was educated at St. Mary's School in Peekskill, New York, USA, and worked as a secretary in the garment district in New York City. In 1973 she married Alix Pasquet, the son of Captain Alix Pasquet, a well-known mulatto officer who in 1958 led a coup attempt against Papa Doc Duvalier. By Pasquet she had two children, Alix Jr. and Sacha. After her 1978 divorce from Pasquet she worked in public relations for Habitation LeClerc, an upscale hotel in Port-au-Prince.