“You told me ‘I miss you’, I said ‘I love you’.” Gael Pietri tells his love story with Gaspar Uliel.

– He is: Yes, his ex-wife. What is he doing there? And where is their son? Is he crying? She is less beautiful than in the photo. What did you find in him?’ In all this whispering, I really ask myself that question. What did you find me? What did you like about me? What made us a couple? Why did we decide to have a child? What made us parents, first together, then apart?

Gael Pietri shared the life of Gaspar Uliel for six years. Together, they gave birth to a boy, Orso, in January 2016. Before breaking up a few years later. In It’s time to say goodbyePublished by Grasset on April 18, the Corsican model looks back on her love affair with the French actor, who tragically disappeared in a skiing accident on January 19, 2022.

In the video, Orso, son of Gaspar Uliel and Gael Pietri

The meeting

In these pages, Gael Pietri reveals the behind-the-scenes of his encounter with the hero Jacquou le Croquant (2007). She is 30 years old, a model, lives in New York. He, the brilliant 27-year-old actor, has already won a César for best hope Kiss whoever you want in 2003, but didn’t tour much for two years. “It all started one evening when I was passing through Paris and when my friend suggested coming to see you at the Champs Elysees theater in a play directed by Michel Fauve,” he recalled. I don’t know much about you, I saw Long engagement Sunday, Chanel advertisement, I know your name, bad your face. You are not an object of charm. I am wary of actors and extremely handsome men.’

After the performance, Gael Pietri and his friend end up in a bistro, where Gaspar Uliel joins them, seemingly by chance. A Parisian evening follows. “I want lightness and fun. I am only in Paris for a few days and I intend to take advantage of it,” says the young woman. Cigarette break in the smoking room, talk about ghosts, looks… Nothing else. Gael Pietri decides to go home and orders a taxi. Sitting in the back seat, he hopes to hear from the actor quickly. He doesn’t believe very well. “I arrived in front of my house, I slam the car door and raise my head, I hear your voice. Here you are sitting on your motorcycle. you followed me.” But if Gaspard Ulliel is there, it must, he says, restore the bunch of keys that Gael Pietri played throughout the evening. He doesn’t. “Can you put me up for the night?” asks the actor. The duo goes to the apartment, but nothing happens: he sleeps on the couch in the living room, she sleeps in her bedroom. The next day, after exchanging numbers, Gaspar Uliel returns home. The following: There is no news for two days. Corsica throws a bottle into the sea. “Did you find your keys?” The recipient’s answer: “I never lost them.”

Passion

Then between Gael Pietri and Gaspar Uliel, everything goes very fast. “After this unusual first night, you invite me to your house for a drink. Ten minutes is enough to kiss. It is beautiful, tender and fiery. This is the first kiss.” The model, however, must return to her New York life. A month of virtual conversations passes before the big return to Paris. “As soon as I come, I come to your house. And there is an alchemy of body and mind. Softness of the skin. Tenderness.”

Gael Pietri falls in love. “I was the first to love you, I admired what you were, your discretion, what you loved. (…) You were defending yourself. You told me “I miss you”, I answered “I love you”. The thirty-year-old ends up taking an apartment in Montmartre. Meanwhile, Gaspar Uliel is cautious. “You stay on guard. Like a wild cat, you have no intention of being imprisoned. Passion eventually catches up with him. “You rarely said “I love you” to me, but you often wrote to me. I don’t know if you have loved before me. (…) As soon as it got to the feelings, the words stuck in your throat.”

After eight months of dating, the couple moved in together. After three years, a decision is made to become a parent. “Baby, we wanted at the same time,” says Gael Pietri in his posthumous letter. One evening in Seoul, after a Chanel event for which Gaspard is the muse, the couple celebrates. The next day, the model feels nauseous. Blood test and verdict: Gael Pietri is pregnant. The second ultrasound announced a boy. Orso was born on January 12, 2016 at 7:14 p.m. “There are tears in your eyes. You are upset. You cut the cord. And you say it is the best day of my life. I am the happiest person in the world.”

Breaking

However, the tale ends. Brutally. “Within 24 hours, you’re gone. Six years gone in 24 hours.” For some time now, Gael Pietri has felt his famous companion colder, more distant, after filming with the actress in the provincial town. A dispute begins. The actor’s words are unequivocal: “I was not indifferent”. Gael Pietri does not say more in his book. Finally, Gaspard Ulliel will end his love story with a message, “a long letter written in beautiful language.” “He says your gratitude for meeting me, he says your pain at the idea of ​​tearing our family apart, he says what we say and plays it out like a movie to end with an undeniable END.” Suddenly Gael Pietri’s world collapses. “I thought I was dying when you left me.”

Still, he perseveres. She is a mother. Meeting with little Orso, he hides his sadness. Climb the slope as far as you can. Vitiligo develops. And for the sake of their son, the former couple will return to complicity. “In this way we had to use our intelligence for Orso’s welfare. More than reconciliation, peace.”

Although separated, the duo will appear elsewhere for family custody, three in Fontainebleau. “You were often absent. And I am still driven by indignation and sadness (…) Did something happen between us in custody? Nothing but the revelation that there was no deep bitterness and that we were able to rally around Orso. Today, when Gaspard Ulliel has disappeared, Gael Pietri is committed to protecting his son. His number one priority, the same as the late actor.