Michèle Lacroix

Timeline

1. 2014

   Kevin De Bruyne, then navigating an unhappy stint at Chelsea before his landmark move to Manchester City, sent a simple message into the digital void. Michèle — a student in Ghent with no ties to the football world — replied. Neither could have predicted that a few exchanged words would become the foundation of a marriage, three children, and a family built quietly behind one of football's most dazzling careers.

2. 2014–2015

   As Kevin's career reached a turning point — a €75m move to Manchester City in the summer of 2015 made him one of the most expensive midfielders in history — Michèle remained a steadying presence entirely outside the spotlight. The couple kept their relationship almost invisible to the press, a deliberate choice that both have maintained throughout the years that followed.

3. 2016

   With Kevin fully settled at the Etihad and already rewriting the standard for creative midfielders in the Premier League, he proposed to Michèle. The engagement was announced with quiet confidence rather than media fanfare — a tone consistent with how the couple had always approached their personal life. Back in Ghent, Michèle continued building her own trajectory, independent of football.

4. 2017-06

   The wedding took place on a warm Belgian summer evening in June 2017. Close family and friends gathered for a ceremony described by those present as intimate and genuinely joyful. There was no press coverage, no staged photographs — just two people from Ghent making a private promise to each other, surrounded by the people who had watched them grow.

5. 2019

   Mason arrived in 2019 — the same year Kevin was named PFA Players' Player of the Year, arguably his finest individual Premier League season. While his father was dazzling defences across England, Mason's birth quietly reorientated the family's priorities. Michèle later spoke about how motherhood deepened her sense of identity — the beginning of a personal journey she would eventually channel into her podcast work.

6. 2021

   Rome was born in 2021, a year marked by both triumph and anxiety: Kevin suffered a serious nose and eye socket injury at the UEFA Euros in June, casting doubt on his tournament participation. While the football world held its breath, the De Bruyne household carried on — absorbing a new arrival and managing the uncertainty of an interrupted summer, with Michèle navigating the emotional complexity of both at once.

7. 2023

   In 2023, Suri De Bruyne arrived — the family's third child and first daughter. With three young children and Kevin's move to Al Ain in the UAE later that year on the horizon, the family entered a new chapter: less Manchester grey, more sunshine and open space. For Michèle, the shift also meant more creative breathing room — the period in which Secret Society began to find its voice and its audience.