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,
Habib Bourguiba season and aforementioned malnutrition severely worsened his health, and he was hospitalized following his primary infection. Accordingly, he was obliged to abandon his studies and remain at the hospital. In order to heal, Bourguiba spent nearly two years living with older brother Mohamed, medic at the local hospital of Kef who also happened to be a strong modernist and advocating for secularism. Mohamed lived with an Italian nurse who welcomed young Habib properly and had an important part in his improvement, by "filling in his emotional void", according to Souhayr Belhassen and . His journey in there, which lasted 21