A coffee with … Normand Brathwaite | The reverse side of the banknote

Is there a way to broach a serious subject with Normand Brathwaite without being told a series of entertaining anecdotes interspersed with laughter? Not really.

Marie-Eve Fournier
Press

Still, her no-holds-barred outlook on money, success, sanity and happiness inspires thought. Like very few other public figures, he knew how to tackle these delicate and personal subjects. Almost always joking, even when he didn’t have the heart to laugh.

Remember when he announced live on TV that he was suffering from depression, in the middle of the Gemini awards gala. The astonishing confession undoubtedly opened doors and some obtuse minds. The contrast between his apparent happiness and his real state was too stark to leave indifferent.

Fifteen years later, goalie Carey Price is being admired for asking for support to take care of his mental health. We are far from uneasiness. The host-musician-actor is delighted that we are beginning to “accept mental illness”, and that we stop seeing it as “a weakness”. But he does not see himself as a precursor who could have contributed to changing mentalities.

Normand Brathwaite swears he has now found the balance. His sleep remains restless all the same. “When I go to bed, there are people who are angry with me and there are people who are angry with me. I fight. My pillow is in the hallway! », He illustrates. Quite the opposite of his lover of the past 30 years, Marie-Claude Tétreault, who “loves everyone” and sleeps without moving the sheets.

Highly emotional, he does not have easy happiness. On stage, he hardly ever felt pleasure, the pressure taking all the place, he said with a certain sadness in his eyes. What a paradox, anyway, for someone who has been successful thanks to his infinite ability to make people laugh…

While her enviable financial situation has been an endless source of jokes over the decades, she hasn’t had all the bright spots. “I have lost a lot of friends. In Quebec, there is a lot of jealousy. […] I have friends who are unfaithful to me because they can’t see me working so hard anymore. I would rather they tell me: “It pisses me off, Normand, everything that happens to you” rather than saying nothing, “laments Normand Brathwaite, without complaining.

He is just as upset, if not more, by the comments passed to his wife Marie-Claude, producer. “She had already been a stage manager and technician. So she was paying her world well. She knew what it was, to do these trades with children. But she was being told, “Hey, you can give me more. My husband is not a millionaire! ” Tired, she decided to focus only on content and turn her back on budget management.

Humans’ relationship with wealth – like success – is often twisted, full of discomfort, envy, unspoken. Normand Brathwaite quickly discovered this at the start of his career when his pay allowed him, overnight, to frequent better restaurants than young people of his age.

“I started making a lot of money, and my boyfriends liked me less. As if I didn’t deserve it or stole it from others. Inevitably, you age faster, because you’re going to eat with Monique Miller, you’re part of another gang. ”

He still decided to play fair. Omnipresent on the small screen, he did not want to “take the world for cellars”. It was obvious that he was making a lot of money. You might as well assume it and laugh about it.

But no question of splurging, impulse purchases without counting. Even young, he was much wiser with his budget than on stage.

The first time he was offered to co-host a gala, his fee was $ 50,000. A fortune compared to the $ 12 he earned for each game of the National Improvisation League (LNI). He was flabbergasted, but wisely gave his check to his accountant for the money to be invested. Like everyone else. He doesn’t have time to spend or need much, he says.

However, he bought a four-story house on Hôtel-de-Ville Street in Montreal in his early twenties. It was not an investment, much less forced savings. Just a place to live. The young actor was not afraid of running out of money or work. The contracts were linked at breakneck speed, his annual income already exceeded one million.

When asked if he has ever paid for a folly, on a whim, only one example comes to mind: an old cream-colored Volvo P1800 paid $ 20,000, there are about ten years. “It is the most beautiful object I have ever seen. It’s a masterpiece. He showed up at TVA to surprise his dear Marie-Claude. Everyone was ecstatic in front of the vehicle. But the chosen one of her heart told her that it was too ostentatious for her. Normand returned the car to the dealer about thirty hours later and lost $ 8,000 in the exchange. “This is the only purchase I made without thinking. ”

The 63-year-old may be financially wise, but he’s not the type to read his bank statements diligently. His wife takes care of everything. To the point where he does not know how much money he has or how it is invested. “It’s a personal choice. I’m not comfortable with it. Either I’ll find it’s good too much or it’s not enough for all the work I’ve done. ”

Normand Brathwaite also admits not knowing the price of basic products like the liter of milk. Not because he spends lavishly, but simply because he is “not good at it”. What interests him is being generous with the people he loves and the causes that are close to his heart. To please and to have fun.

So, he decided not to leave a big inheritance to his children. The host of Belle and Bum instead chose to share his wealth with them during his lifetime. “If they need something, they ask for it. It makes children who are not there waiting for you to die, and that makes children who know the value of things, ”he explains.