“We avoided the topic.” Charlotte Gainsbourg talks about her three children’s relationship with their grandfather

“In the Gainsburg family… I’m asking my grandfather.” Serge Gainsbourg, who died on March 2, 1991, kept his special place in the hearts of the French. But in the family sphere, how did his grandchildren appropriate this national figure? His daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, recently confided in the relationship between her three children and their famous late father. In an interview published in the magazine on Sunday April 16 Female versionThe 51-year-old actress told how Ben, Alice and Joe got to know their grandfather despite his disappearance.

Charlotte Gainsbourg and Danny Boon play the cross-interview game

“When I had Ben (In 1997, almost six years after his death Serge Gainsbourg, editor’s note)I still had a lot of sharp pains and Yva [Attal] was afraid that I would transfer this morbid side to him, so we avoided the topic, ”admits Charlotte Gainsbourg, who now plays in the comedy. life in reality. “At least I couldn’t talk about my father, listen to him.”

However, his children were still able to bond with their grandfather through music (of course). “Well, like Alice, they built their story with their grandfather,” the Franco-British continues. Ben’s front door was Lucky kids!. For Alice it was Bonnie and Clyde and the Bardot side. And for the latter, Joe, There Decadence, which he sang when he was 4, when he wasn’t that old at all, and it was funny. It’s interesting to see how they’re affected differently.”

Ben Attal’s complicated relationship with his mother

Family relations with the Gainsbourgs have become a subject of their own. Guest on the podcast As long as there are men ! this month, Ben Attal, the eldest son of Charlotte Gainsbourg and Ivan Attal, spoke candidly about his relationship with his mother, which was more complicated in the past. If he insists that he loves her “more than anything”, he is excited that she awakens his memories of yesterday. If Ben Attal’s childhood wounds still feel raw, it’s because of one event in particular. It is, in particular, about the departure of Charlotte’s parents to New York after the death of Kate Barry, her half-sister.

In 2013, when Charlotte Gainsbourg’s sister lost her life after falling to her death from her apartment, a fresh start was felt. Which is then not to the taste of Ben Attal, who decides to settle in Bath, England. When he was only 15 years old, he started working there as a cook. “A bit harsh separation,” he admits, which will ruin his relationship with his mother. “I don’t really know what caused it, maybe because he’s been away for years, from an abandonment complex,” he analyzes in hindsight. Added to that are the difficulties at school. the “bad student” of that time is sure of it today. “School failure” rhymes with “family problem”. Since then, water has flown under the bridges and the Gainsbourg-Attal clan seems more united than ever.

As soon as a song came on the radio, we changed

Ben Atal

On the occasion of the same podcast, Ben Attal also returned to his relationship with his grandmother, Jane Birkin. The 25-year-old actor, in particular, claims that he did not attend “Mammy Jane” much in his childhood. “I just found him, I haven’t talked to him in a long time. Today I see her vulnerable, like that, in need. (…) I just have to be there for him,” she told columnist Julia Molkhu. The young man says that, in fact, he felt closer to his paternal grandparents a long time ago. What does he explain about the disappearance of his grandfather, Serge Gainsbourg, before he was born? “My mother felt her loss very badly. We have this side that has always been a bit hidden. As soon as there was a song on the radio, we changed.

In the video, Charlotte Gainsbourg returns to the reasons that made her leave Paris