For the release of his latest book, 1938 – Eye of the Storm (XO editions), Frédéric Mitterrand (74 years old) lent himself to the exercise of the fourth of “couv'” of Release. Prolix, the former Minister of Culture was not content to talk about his work which takes us to the immediate pre-war period with a gallery of characters each more fascinating than the other, but over the course of the conversation, he indulged in a few confidences. If he came back on his health”not flaming“Since he contracted the covid-19 virus more than a year ago – one of his sons came to his bedside then – he also mentioned his financial situation, which was not spectacular either.
“With this bit of restraint which is his charm and has caused him some setbacks, he does not hesitate to admit that his rent is paid by one of his brothers.“, writing Release. François Mitterrand’s nephew has a brother who made wealth in real estateanother which is a renowned gallery owner. The siblings were born from the couple formed by Robert Mitterrand (1915-2002), polytechnic engineer and senior civil servant, and Edith Cahier (1920-2014). Thanks to his eldest, he can then lodge “for years in this first floor with a view of the rare greenery of the garden of the Ministry of Defense, while recalling his preference for his Tunisian house“.
Tunisia, it is in this country that he adopted his last two sons, Saïd and Jihed. The first is Mathieu, whose early childhood he had mentioned in an interview for the magazine Gala : “I raised my biological son, Mathieu, alone, from the age of 4, because his mother took drugs. I did my best. He suffered though, I’m afraid. (…) When he was ten years old, I lived with a friend and I felt that it could be a complicated situation for him. For this reason, I stopped living together with a man.“
Frédéric Mitterrand could have had a well-stocked bank account, “between TV presentation, production of fiction and documentaries, writing memoirs and biographys”, reminds Freed. However, his extravagant side and his generous generosity took over, this doubled by a “moderate business acumen“, adds the daily. Passionate, he opened arthouse cinemas in the 1970s, but he had to repay the debts after their bankruptcy.