It has now been more than six years since Johnny Hallyday died. Six years since his family was torn apart over his inheritance, in full view of all French people. A situation which seems to sadden Sylvie Vartan, who shared the singer’s life for fifteen years between 1965 and 1980. Invited on the set of Quelle époque!, this Saturday March 2, the 79-year-old singer who is preparing to say goodbye on stage in a final burst of concerts evoked this family war. Léa Salamé first showed him the images of the funeral ceremony of Johnny Hallyday, on December 9, 2017 at the Madeleine church. Images that are difficult to see for Sylvie Vartan, mother of Johnny’s first son, David Hallyday. “It’s an invented scene,” she first said, looking away before the presenter of the show tried to get her to react further to this family tear “that the French don’t understand”. “We don’t understand a lot of things… If we knew the why of things…” evaded Sylvie Vartan.
The rest under this advertisement
Since 2017, the members of the Hallyday clan have no longer spoken to each other
Since the death of Taulier, relations between Laeticia Hallyday, the singer’s last wife, and her children from previous unions, David Hallyday and Laura Smet (the daughter of Johnny Hallyday and Nathalie Baye), are at their worst. If an agreement on the inheritance was reached by the courts in July 2020, the members of the clan still do not speak to each other. “What’s the money that’s ruining the thing?” asked Léa Salamé, bluntly, to Sylvie Vartan. “There is that, there is education… There is the family environment, it is very important. The way I was lucky enough to be raised by loving people, who structured me, who gave me values, who gave me an example. And it’s much simpler than when you learn about life via the Internet. I think it must be complicated,” the singer then replied.
Sylvie Vartan thinks it was the lack of paternal love that led to the heartbreak
Sylvie Vartan’s words seem like an attack on Laeticia Hallyday, whose relationship with her parents is notoriously difficult. The forty-year-old was in fact raised largely by her great-grandmother while her father, businessman André Boudou, tried his luck in the United States. “I had real relationships with my parents, I knew love. The love of the men in my life, the love of my mother, intense, and it is very important for the future, believes Sylvie Vartan. I think that when we have children, we must do it knowingly or we must not have them because if we do not have the possibility or the fiber to be someone responsible to lead them as best as possible according to the circumstances… Obviously everyone makes mistakes, there is no perfect pattern, but at least we have that desire at the start.”
The rest under this advertisement
Article written in collaboration with 6Médias