On May 4, Paris Première will broadcast a new documentary entitled Behind your applause, devoted to the deceased and legendary TV host Jacques Martin, who died in 2007 of cancer. He was 74 years old. On this occasion, one of his daughters, Elise Martin, granted a truthful interview to Gala.
Long questioned by the magazine, Elise Martin returned to the very rich family history of her clan, she who was born in 1965 from the first marriage of the host with Annie Lefèvre. “I was 2 years old when my parents divorced (…) I never had a woman-to-woman discussion with my mother about this. I only remember that she always had a suitcase ready. She was waiting for daddy to tell her to come back. She remained eternally in love with him. She had another man in her life, but it was to better hide her distress. She died at 52 and I believe she died of boredom, grief, regrets too“, confides the one who has a brother from the same marriage, David, born in 1961.
Jacques Martin, who had remained present in the life of his ex-wife who suffered from alcoholism to help her, never regretted this separation unlike that which occurred years later with another of his wives: Cécilia. Indeed, the host of the cult show fan school married for the third time, in 1984, Cécilia Ciganer-Albeniz. It was the mayor of Neuilly at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy, who officiated at the ceremony… A man who was to steal his wife a few years later! This will remain his greatest pain in his love life. “With each breakup, we experienced the distress of our father. There, in addition, there was the feeling of being betrayed by the one who was the godfather of his daughters. He had confided his friendship to Nicolas Sarkozy and it all ended in this adultery. He got double trouble“, confides Elise Martin. “I hate adultery. It’s the first time that life spat on me“, would even have declared at the time the late presenter.
From this marriage were born two daughters: Judith (in 1984) and Jeanne-Marie (in 1987). Thereafter, Jacques Martin will live a last romance with Céline Boisson.
The full interview with Elise Martin can be read in Galaedition of April 21, 2022.