Marie Catherine Éléonore Bénard (Catherine Éléonore Bernard; 1740 – 23 February 1769) was a French lady-in-waiting and alleged petite maîtresse to King Louis XV of France in 1768-69.
Her father was an officer of the Royal Guard of the King, an 'officier de la Bouche du Roi'.
She was employed in the household of the king's daughter, Madame Adélaïde, as a dame pour accompagner (lady-in-waiting).
The paternity of the daughter is mainly derived from the fact that Madame Adélaïde became her godmother, which was taken to mean that the king was her father.
The king did not normally have affairs with an unmarried noblewoman or a lady-in-waiting, only to married ones; and when he had affairs with unmarried commoners, they were normally married off when they became pregnant and discarded; and none of these two typical scenarios is applicable in the case of Catherine Éléonore Bénard.