Chantal de Souza Yayi, a native of Ouidah, is a member of the prominent De Souza family, who are originally of Portuguese and Brazilian descent, based around the coastal city.[1][2] She has ten siblings, including her late older brother, Marcel Alain de Souza (1953–2019), a banker and former President of the ECOWAS Commission.[1][3] Yayi is a great granddaughter of Francisco Félix de Sousa, who was a Brazilian slave trader and the viceroy of Ouidah. She is the niece of Isidore de Souza, who served as the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cotonou from 1990 until 1999.[1]
Her older brother, Marcel de Souza, introduced her to her future husband, Thomas Boni Yayi.[1] She and Boni Yayi have five children. In 2008, Chantal Yayi and Thomas Boni Yayi, who is a descendant of the Yoruba princes of Sabe in his own right, were awarded chieftaincy titles by the Nigerian king of Ile-Ife, Olubuse II.[4]
As first lady, Yayi focused on education and healthcare.[5]
In preparation for the 2016 Beninese presidential election, Yayi helped her brother set up a small political party, the Republican Front for a Patriotic Alternative, or Front républicain pour une alternative patriotique, (Frap), which Marcel Alain de Souza chaired and used to launch his presidential candidacy.[5] However, Marcel de Souza received only 0.13% of the vote.[6]
In 2021, Yayi reportedly suffered a stroke following months of health problems.[7] She was initially treated in the intensive care unit of Centre National Hospitalier Universitaire-Hubert Maga (CNHU) in Cotonou before being flown to a hospital in Europe for additional treatment in early May 2021.[7]
