She is often considered totally sassy while he is discreet and often adopts a cold, impassive and closed face. Perfect opposites that everything seems to attract, Bernard Henri-Lévy and Arielle Dombasle have been one of the strongest couple since 1993, the year of their marriage. A union which nevertheless should never have happened, as the writer-philosopher explained on the set of Couch on France 3 in 2015.
Fan of the rantings of his wife and her colorful personality, the author had indeed almost posed a rabbit to his sweetheart on their wedding day. A tragedy narrowly avoided according to Bernard Henri-Levy who remembered with emotion this day which could have had a dramatic outcome. Stuck in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo which was then in a state of siege, the writer could no longer move from this city and go to his wedding celebrated in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in France. “The airlift was completely interrupted“he recounted.
Stressed about losing the woman of his life, he would then have been touched by an unexpected miracle. “I managed to get to my wedding on a UN plane. And it’s true that miraculously – I don’t believe in God but there I happen to believe in it – on June 18, 1993 the airlift was restored, the space of a flight or two and I took advantage of one of his flights.” he confided. “Extremely“happy with the pretty blonde who had become his muse in the room The last judgement (1992) and the movie The day and the night (1997), he assures even live “a permanent love at first sight for many years now.“.
Before her union with BHL, Arielle Dombasle had been married to Paul Albou in December 1976, a dentist who was thirty-two years older than her. They divorced in 1985. Interviewed by Marc-Olivier Fogiel on his show The sofain 2017, she said: “I tell myself it’s strange because he was the first man in my life. This doctor, who was a very well known playboy. And who had in his arms the most beautiful women in the world. And me, I absolutely wanted to conquer it. I was like some kind of Lolita.”
For his part, the writer was married to the former model Isabelle Doutrelugine in the 1970s. From their union was born a daughter, Justine, on September 27, 1974. He was then with the editor Sylvie Bouscasse in 1980. They become parents of a son named Antonin the same year.