Borrowed from French malgré (“against”) and French lui (“him”).
malgré lui (not comparable)
- Contrary to their desires or ambitions.
1977, John Halperin, Trollope and Politics: A Study of the Pallisers and Others, page 257:[…] and he pities "that class of young ladies who malgré lui are bound to fall in love with these wooden specimens of youthful manhood."