This Monday, October 10, Francis Perrin celebrates his 75th birthday. Candles that he will probably blow out in the company of his family, his companion Gersende Dufromentel, who has shared his life since the beginning of the 2000s. A woman for whom he has an infallible love and who is always present for him, who has lived for years dark from alcohol. Father of a family in particular of Louis, who is 20 years oldthis last with autism saw his parents Francis and Gersende lead a long fight against discrimination. Parents of two other children, Clarisse, 18, and Baptiste, 17, – Francis Perrin is also the father of twins Cécile and Fabiola, born in 1988 in French Polynesia and whom he adopted with his first wife Laurence, as well as of another daughter baptized Jeanne (born in 1998) that he had with the actress Caroline Berg -, the actor and Gersende lived through difficult times that they put down on paper in the book step by step (Editions JC Lattes).
Discreet and modest about his private life, Francis Perrin, faced with this terrible ordeal, had problems with alcoholism, from which it has now emerged. He recounted those dark years: “I had this weakness, I looked in alcohol for a kind of crutch. What is good is that I managed to overcome this addiction and I got out of it.” In this book, he recounts these hard times. In January of this year 2022, the comedian mentioned these alcoholism problems this time on the show The secret box (France 3). The illustrious actor had a hard time containing his tears when he saw his wife arrive, accompanied by her children and grandchildren, sing him the hit of Jacques Brel when we only have love.
We think it heals, when it’s a poison
And following the tradition of the show which wants each guest to put an object back in the box at the end of the show, he deposited “a plate which is put on a bottle where it is marked Whiskey“, strong image of this dark period of his life. “There are moments in life that are dramas, that happen, and we think we can cure it with alcohol. And so, I was an alcoholiche explained. […] We think it’s a medicine, that it heals, when it’s a poison.” He then thanked the people who helped him get out of it, like Mimie Mathy in particular. But above all the infallible love of Gersende. “Thanks to friends, a couple of doctors, Jacques and Anne, thanks to Mimie Mathy, friendship, thanks above all to Gersende, I decided without medicine, without anything, to never drink alcohol again. It’s done, and it’s an oath that I made, that I will keep“, he had made it known. This “close-knit tribe” managed to overcome all these hardships and come out of it. “I discovered a strength to help others. Suddenly, I have the feeling that my life will not have been useless“, had notably delivered the actor, who celebrates his 75th birthday today, to Gala.