Lea Salame and Raphael Glucksman, a romance that almost never saw the light of day

“Their story is a Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn movie,” assures Michelle Hazanivicius. For almost a decade, Lea Salame and Raphael Glucksman were perfectly in love. On regular television, the presenter of “What an era”. And the head of the PS-Place Publique list in the European elections, however, preferred to live their story in the center of attention. Which doesn’t stop them from slipping a few words of praise at each other during certain interviews. In May 2023, Lea Salame reminds in this way in the “Libre à Vous” program: Figaro the benefits of this romance.

“Put down your weapons.”

“He taught me that it’s not just a balance of power,” he declared at the time. I thought that life is a constant power struggle, and you either win or lose. You’re either going forward or you’re going backwards, and not really.” The hostess assures him. the guide also taught how to “lay down the weapons”. “He taught me to be calm,” she continues. Accepting to be who I was. Break down a bit this kind of mega armor that I had built for myself. He made everything worse because of love.”

For his part, Raphael Glucksman praises Paris game the sincerity of someone who shares his life. “He can absolutely say that I was bad, like a journalist who judges the presentation of the media,” explains the politician. “You speak too slowly, you use too complicated words…”, yes. The candidate, who does not hide his admiration for his partner, still wants to draw a clear line between professional and personal life. “We’re trying to compartmentalize,” he explains. I like that he doesn’t encroach on my territory, I don’t encroach on his territory. He has a great career and once we cross these lines, it will jeopardize our trajectory.

Days of “Chaos”.

Their mantra? “Don’t expose yourself and respect each other’s space.” “These are two destinies, not a merger,” assures the European Parliament. Two destinies that could never be intertwined. In 2015, Raphael Glucksman repeatedly refused to participate in a special edition of the program “On n’est pas couchés”, in which Lea Salame appeared at the time, dedicated to the attacks of November 13. The writer is experiencing a dark period, which is marked by the mourning of his father, Andre, who died on November 9, 2015. “Those were days of absolute chaos,” he recalls on the set of “Salut les Terriens” three years later. late November 2018.

The essayist, however, finally agrees to come to the set of Laurent Rouquier. And this on the advice of his mother. “He told me. “Forward, it is important to speak at this moment,” says the writer. Then Raphael Glucksman meets the woman who will become his companion. An episode Lea Salame returns for in November 2020, “We’re Almost Live.” “There were a lot of artists, a lot of politicians, they just came to express their sadness, and that’s one of the most beautiful moments of We Are Not in Bed,” he tells Laurent Rouquier. That’s right, I happened to meet Raphael that day, five years ago today. It’s true, thanks to you, Laura, I met my lover. You are Cupid.”

A match that Lea Salame describes as “obvious” in the columns Marie-France. The only downside is that at that time the journalist was in a relationship with the writer Olivier Guez. The popular press was quick to reveal his new relationship, including Here He published the first photos in January 2016. We see how Rafael Glucksman puts his arm around the presenter’s shoulders. Images that cause a real earthquake in their respective lives. “My adultery was exposed in the press,” says Lea Salame RTL:, in September 2023. I was with Olivier and I kissed another man who was Raphael. I was paparazzi.”

The journalist did not immediately learn about this title. “We taped the show on Thursday night and the magazine issue came out on Thursday night,” he continued. Everyone knew it in production. Producer Catherine Barma said: “You don’t tell him anything because there’s a show to tape.” After recording for a few hours, I asked for my cell phone and found the photos there.” Before adding: “I spent the show laughing myself silly, texting the new co-worker, the old one, and my lawyer. Today I laugh about it because everything has calmed down, but it ruined my personal life.”

Red carpet

Since then, the couple, who gave birth to their son Gabriel on March 12, 2017, has been low-key, to say the least. He was just immortalized on the red carpet of the same year’s Cannes Film Festival. He then attends a screening of the film Terrible, signed by Michel Hazanavicius. These photos will remain the only official images of the couple. “Our only public photo was taken in Cannes in 2017 when we went to see Michelle’s film,” says Raphael Glucksman. Paris game. I didn’t have a tuxedo, Michelle gave me hers… Since then, everyone has used this image to say,

And the candidate insists. “Now this is a little conservative side of me, there’s a kind of distance in the politicians of the past that I like. You have to learn again not to stage your personal life.” An intimacy that Lea Salame and her companion fiercely defend. When columnist Philippe Caverivière makes a joke about Raphael Glucksman in April 2022, “We’re Live,” Lea Salame takes it with amusement nonetheless: “We have said first of all that there is no private life.” The one who also chose not to invite the politician on his TV show France Inter: During the European elections, he intends to avoid controversies related to his love life.

“I don’t want to make it an issue,” she confides to C à Vous. I think listeners and viewers have known me for quite some time, they know that maybe (With Raphael Glucksman, editor’s note) we don’t think the same, he is himself, I am me. And you know from the beginning, I have not gone out with a politician, he says. When I meet Rafael, he is an essayist, an editor, a writer, a publicist, he is not a politician. Maybe if it was political, I wouldn’t go. Just kidding, love you know, it falls on you that it is, it’s the strongest, and there’s no debate.

With family

Despite their discretion, Lea Salame sometimes publishes photos of her companion on her Instagram page. In May 2020, he notably shared a photo of Raphael Glucksman wearing sunglasses and a hat, jeans, a backpack and Stan Smith on a bike ride in the capital. “Dirty bobo,” jokes the journalist in the title of the publication. She also shares rare photos of their family on Instagram. Privately, she is coming to terms with her new role as mother-in-law. In 2011, Rafael Glucksman had a son, Alexander, from his marriage with Georgian politician Eka Zguladze.

“The mother-in-law relationship is a very special, very interesting and very enriching relationship,” says Léa Salamé in Libre à Vous. It was a building with my son-in-law, not immediate. We tame each other, we learn, we teach each other. And then love comes in and grows.” The quartet is now a united family. The journalist and the essayist, in their turn, form a close couple. “Ordinariness and boredom are the two enemies of couples, right? assures Lea Salame. Making your relationship last takes work. We must strive to maintain it, despite the arrival of children and professional ambitions. Mission accomplished, and has been for almost a decade.