“No one has ever met them.” Natasha and Paul, Serge Gainsbourg’s thoughtful children.

They appeared hand in hand in the square in front of Saint Roche Church in Paris. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon were united at the funeral of their mother Jane Birkin, which was organized on July 24, 2023. A ceremony that was also attended by Alice and Ben Atal, Charlotte Gainsbourg’s children, as well as Marlo Jack. Tiger Mitchell and Roman de Kermadec, the respective sons of Lou Doillon and Kate Barry.

Within the Gainsbourg clan, however, two people were missing: Natasha and Paul, Serge’s first children. “They were never in Serge’s Birkin era,” confided a close friend of the clan. Paris game , April 17. They never came to family gatherings, no one ever crossed paths with them. It must be difficult for them to carry the name and legacy of a man they barely knew, a father who was so absent and so present throughout their lives.”

“See you again…or not”

The singer’s elders have developed discretion for decades. So much so that their presence at their father’s funeral, which took place at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris on March 9, 1991, went unnoticed. Behind the scenes, Natasha and Paul Gainsbourg sold their shares at 5 bis rue de Verneuil, the singer’s former home, to Charlotte Gainsbourg. None of them had ever explored the place.

“We shared everything… explained Charlotte Gainsbourg Parisian April 9, 2018: We rule moral rights, all four of us (With Paul, Natacha and Lulu Gainsbourg, editor’s note) There is a person who concentrates the inquiries.” In February 2018, Lulu Gainsbourg was highlighted for her participation Paris game that he had no contact with Serge Gainsbourg’s elders. And I would only meet once, sixteen years ago. “We’ll meet again… or not,” she put things into perspective. “When I lived with Serge, and even after that, I tried to bring him closer to his first two children,” Jane Birkin told the magazine in February 2020. But their mother always made sure it wasn’t possible.”

Françoise

In 1963, Serge Gainsbourg married Françoise Pancrazy, who was nicknamed “Princess Galitsina” because of her past union with Georges Galitsin of a noble Russian family. The daughter of a great industrialist, she fell in love with the author Javanese For Juliette Greco, who had no money at the time. Very quickly, the musician moved to his plush apartment at number 12, which is located on Tronchet Street. On January 7, 1964, the couple got married in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.

Their first daughter, Natasha, nicknamed “Totot” by her father, was born on August 8, 1964. Two years later, the translator Lilac Puncher buys him an apartment on rue de l’Arbalète. Thought behind the scenes, Serge Gainsbourg, however, decided to keep the media silent on the birth of his daughter. A thousand miles away is the attitude he adopted towards his daughter Charlotte and son Lulu, with whom he posed on the cover. Paris game. In some works focusing on the fate of the artist, Natacha is hardly mentioned…

When he received the first wave, in 1965, after composing A wax doll, a sound doll, Serge Gainsbourg is careful not to talk about his personal life. For her part, Françoise Pancratsy, crushed by her husband’s success, can’t resist the jealousy typical of aspiring artists’ companions (she had previously flown so far to Tokyo for the sole purpose of slapping Dalida: she had just been immortalized on set with Serge Gainsbourg The Unknown Woman from Hong Kong in 1963).

The slap

The divorce process is underway. Serge Gainsbourg leaves the matrimonial home. If he has visitation rights for his daughter, he can do so only under the supervision of Françoise, he notes. Paris game. Their divorce was registered on October 20, 1966.

That year, however, Serge Gainsbourg tried to win back his ex-wife in order to stay close to their daughter. The couple gives each other a second chance, provided they don’t move in together. But the singer will not participate in the birth of his son, Paul, on April 13, 1968, nicknamed “Vanya” by his mother. During that time, he actually began an affair with Brigitte Bardot and visited her at 5 bis, rue. Vernoy. No photos of Natasha and Paul will ever hang in the apartment.

Françoise Pancratsy, Natasha, Paul and Serge Gainsbourg meet for the last time at a Christmas dinner in December 1968. Their last supper will not be the happiest. To the point that he decides to divide his family life. Serge Gainsbourg is also leaving. “He said. “They’ll come later,” Jane Birkin recalls of Natacha and Paul. I tried to make them come, but it didn’t go well. Their mother demanded from Serge to pay a whole fortune to see them. Divorce forced his presence. It seemed to me such an interesting situation.”

New life

The musician, however, continues to follow the school education of his children from time to time, who have adopted the name “Ginsburg” (Serge’s real name) for anonymity. Natasha and Paul are still among the directors of Melody Nelson Publishing, which manages the artist’s catalog. Both, however, took very different paths from their father’s.

If we believe Paris gameToday, Paul Gainsbourg lives “between Paris and the Oasis” and “still follows his father’s works”. A collector of vintage cars, he also made theater sets. For her part, Natasha for a long time ran a modeling agency with her husband, the headquarters of which was located in Saint-Saint-Denis. In 2016, he finally settled in Eur.