Alain Delon was among the greatest celebrities of the golden era of French cinema, with his brooding good looks, ice-blue eyes and seductive on- and off-screen presence making him the pinup of postwar France.
In a career spanning more than half a century, Delon made 90 films, many of them critically acclaimed, including Plein Soleil (Purple Noon) in which he played antihero Tom Ripley, Le Samouraï and the historical epic The Leopard, that drew an estimated 134 million cinema-goers, making him a star at the box office.
But today, aged 88, and severely diminished by a stroke five years ago, Delon is playing his final role in a real-life drama resonant of a Greek or Shakespearean tragedy as his three children, Anthony, Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, squabble publicly in a destructive flurry of accusations and legal actions.
So grubby has the washing of Delon family linen in the media become, the actor’s lawyer, Christophe Ayela, has had to call for a truce. “It has to stop and everyone needs to calm down. That’s enough now,” Ayela said.
Behind the long stone wall marking the limits of the Delon estate, known as La Brûlerie, that stretches for 1.4 miles along the road to the village of Douchy-Montcorbon in the Loiret department of central France, the actor now lives a reclusive life. It is here, 87 miles southeast of Paris, that Delon has said he wishes to be buried, near the chapel constructed in the grounds of the cemetery he created for more than 30 of his beloved dogs.
Delon bought the property, a former holiday center for rail workers’ children set on just under 300 acres of mostly wooded estate, in 1971. The 1,500 villagers are proud of their famous resident and profoundly discreet; the last time anyone saw the actor, reportedly also stricken with lymphoma, was at a film screening in nearby Château Renard last May. A photograph shows Delon looking relaxed, flanked by his now former Japanese companion, Hiromi Rollin, 66, who lived with the actor from 2019 until his children succeeded in evicting her from his home last summer.
In a rare show of unity, all three accused Rollin of abusing their father’s weakness. She counter-accused them of trying to kill him by stopping his medical treatment. Lawyers were engaged; writs flew. Worse was to come.
The first salvo in the sibling war came earlier this month when Anthony, 59, whose mother Nathalie was Delon’s only wife, accused his half-sister, Anouchka, 33, daughter of Dutch model and journalist Rosalie van Breemen, of “lying” and “manipulation” for allegedly hiding the results of cognitive tests Swiss doctors had performed on their father.
So grubby has the washing of Delon family linen in the media become, the actor’s lawyer, Christophe Ayela, has had to call for a truce.
Anouchka appeared on television to counter-attack. The lawyer, Ayela, said Delon was furious at the “media storm” created by his eldest son. But the third sibling, Anouchka’s brother 29-year-old Alain-Fabien, now living at La Brûlerie, leapt to Anthony’s defense, and secretly recorded his sister allegedly “dripping insinuations” into their father’s ear. More television appearances, accusations and writs followed.
The public prosecutor ordered that Delon undergo an expert medical report and envisaged making him a ward of court after it suggested the actor had “lost all discernment”. Ayela and the children said this was nonsense. After a second medical examination, the lawyer said: “Monsieur Alain Delon responded to questions … confirming therefore that his discernment is not gone, contrary to the slanderous statements made in the media.”
The protagonists insist the feud is not about money; Delon’s will leaves half his fortune to his daughter and the other half divided between his sons. It is an inequitable disbursement but one they claim not to contest.
Anthony and Alain-Fabien have had difficult relationships with their father and brushes with drugs, guns and the law. A third son, Ari Boulogne, born to German rock star Nico of the Velvet Underground – but whom the actor never recognized as his son – was partly raised by Delon’s mother. He died last year after a lifetime battling drug addiction.
Le Monde suggested that Delon’s own turbulent childhood left him incapable of establishing relationships with his sons. Delon was four when his parents divorced and he was sent to a foster home. He was subsequently expelled from six schools. “I was disruptive, very indisciplined so I was thrown out. I was a kind of little monster; very rough,” he said of this period.
Delon did his military service in the French Navy aged 17 and served in the Indochina war, but was court-martialed for stealing a jeep. Returning to Paris, he was living among prostitutes and gangsters in the late 1950s before being discovered as an actor.
She counter-accused them of trying to kill him by stopping his medical treatment. Lawyers were engaged; writs flew.
After a five-year relationship with Romy Schneider, Delon married Nathalie, then pregnant with Anthony, in 1964. The couple divorced four years later. Delon’s relationships with women were notorious, including persuading two actresses – Mireille Darc and Maddly Bamy – to engage in a ménage à trois in the late 1960s, declaring he was unable to decide which he loved best.
Delon has never made any secret that Anouchka is his favorite child. “To no other woman have I so often said I love you,” he said in 2008, adding a decade later: “I have a daughter who is the love of my life, perhaps a little too much with regard to the others.” Observers have suggested Delon’s turbulent relationship with Anthony and Alain-Fabien – both actors – stems from seeing them as rivals. “No doubt his ego – as uncertain as it was immense – made him consider his sons as potential rivals who he needed to smash,” wrote Le Monde.
The three children all claim Delon is ailing but lucid and aware of the feud, making these final family scenes even more tragic.
Kim Willsher is a reporter living in Paris