Nouel was born to Carlos Rafael Nouel y Pierret, Dominican diplomat, Law teacher, journalist, and businessman of French descent, and Clemencia Antonia Bobadilla y Desmier D’Olbreause (daughter of President [[Pedro Santana|Santana]]’s minister [[Tomás Bobadilla|Tomás Bobadilla y Briones]] —of full Spanish descent—, the first ruler of the Dominican Republic, with his wife of French noble origin María Virginia Desmier D’Olbreause y Allard) in [[Santo Domingo]]. His great-grandfather, Barthelemy Pierret Grinet, was a French gunnery sergeant who arrived to the island on 29 January 1802 in the fleet commanded by General [[Charles Leclerc|Leclerc]], Napoleon’s brother-in-law.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Edwin Rafael|last=Espinal Hernández|title=Los descendientes de la flota de Leclerc|url=http://www.idg.org.do/capsulas/diciembre2005/diciembre20053.htm|work=Cápsulas Genealógicas|publisher=Instituto Dominicano de Genealogía (Dominican Institute of Genealogy)|date=3 December 2005|accessdate=27 September 2014|language=Spanish}}</ref>
