Habib Bourguiba these commitments, only the spirit of Article 39 (establishing the life presidency) would prevail. The end of his reign was marked by a war of succession, the weakening of the left and the emergence of the Islamist movement and patrimonialism. In 1925, while he was a student in Paris, Habib Bourguiba met Mathilde Lorrain with whom he settled. During summer vacations back in Tunis, he learned that she was pregnant: Habib Bourguiba Jr., his only child, was born on 9 April 1927 in Paris. The couple married in August of the same year, after their return to Tunisia. After independence,
Early life of Habib Bourguiba were not a young student, I was satisfied with this date of birth and kept it". One of his ministers, Mahmoud El Materi, confirmed this hypothesis in his memoirs. Being the son of Ali Bourguiba and Fattouma Khefacha, who was 40 when he was born, Bourguiba stated that his mother was ashamed to conceive a child at that late age, her last pregnancy being seven years old at the time. Meanwhile, his father wondered whether he could raise his son at this old age. Habib Bourguiba later described his birth in these words: "When she conceived me, it was for