He is one of the emblematic figures of the French audiovisual landscape. Jean-Luc Reichmann will soon be the star of a documentary. Indeed, to celebrate the twelve years of his cult game The 12 noon shots, TF1 will portray the 61-year-old host in July. Relatives will thus speak, like his sister Marie-Laure, nine years his junior and hard of hearing. This is the first time she speaks in front of a camera, a great victory for the duo. With our colleagues from the magazine Galaon newsstands this Thursday, June 30, 2022, brother and sister give themselves up.
First, Marie-Laure refused to testify. Fear of not being audible enough for viewers, of not finding the right words, “shame even“. Finally Jean-Luc Reichmann managed to convince her. “I told her that her testimony could be used to do good around her, that it was good to show the path travelled. The hard work to achieve our dreams, the determination that has always guided us“, he launches. And then to present his little sister, “with all its fragility and sincerity“.
Jean-Luc Reichmann has always led the fight by his side. Already when they were children, he was the first to understand that she couldn’t hear. The diagnosis then falls: 97% deafness for Marie-Laure. Her brother takes her under his wing and takes her everywhere with him, “to be included in our society“despite her disability. This fusional relationship brings to the young woman but also to the facilitator. “I understood at eleven that what I have, with my difference, a stain on my nose, is absolutely nothing compared to my sister’s handicap. It shaped my character“, confides this father.
Later, as he begins to appear on television, he imagines Marie-Laure’s pride. But it won’t be…”When I returned to Toulouse, I understood that my sister didn’t understand anything I was saying on TV“, he recalls. A new fight is essential: that of making his programs subtitled and accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing. Victory in 1997, when the clause is added to his contract. “And then it became a rule for everyone on TV. I am very proud of this fight. It gives meaning to my life“, he concludes.