On July 8, 2017, Sheila discovered the unthinkable: the death of her only son Ludovic Chancel, at the age of 42. An overdose took away her child, how to survive such a tragedy? In the pages of the magazine Galathe singer who promotes her compilation Best of 60th birthday and is on tour agrees to address this painful subject. Born on April 7, 1975, he is the fruit of her relationship with the singer Ringo (real name Guy Bayle) with whom she married on February 13, 1973. With frankness and modesty, she returns to the child whom he was and on his ability to overcome tragedy, while learning to live with it.
To those who may have been surprised to know that Sheila sang a month after the sudden disappearance of her son, the singer explains it quite simply: “It held me up.” Which does not mean that she has recovered, quite the contrary, but the music has certainly alleviated her immense grief. The 77-year-old artist clearly proclaims her state of mind after the tragedy: “I can’t get over itShe also made a momentous decision:For the first time in my life, I saw a shrink. It felt good to talk, even if it doesn’t solve anything. I know that Ludo is sitting next to me and that he listens if I don’t say something stupid.“
My son made his choices, he lived his life
Ludovic is with her all the time. Of him she will say that he was “a heart on legs“, a “kid love“. According to the interpreter of School is over, he was “rolled in flour“because he was too nice and he fell on the wrong people. To his bad associations, is then added the drugs and his whirlwind from which he did not manage to get out. As a mother, Sheila obviously suffered from a enormous feeling of guilt, but a doctor offered him another vision of the situation: “He explained to me that there was nothing I could do. That I had done my job raising him until he was 20 and that I was no longer responsible for his actions, his associations. My son made his choices, he lived his life. Mine is to live with all that, even if it’s unbearable.“
Sheila has to live on, trying to figure out why she’s gone”an adorable boy who plays the guitar like Thomas Dutronc“. Singing on stage allows her to transcend pain, she who dedicated a song, pacing horseon his disc Come from elsewhere. His darling son, who has long been in a relationship with the controversial Sylvie Ortega Munos, leaves behind a daughter, Tara Rose, born in 2001.
Find the full interview in the magazine Gala from October 6, 2022