Jean-Pierre Pernaut died on March 2, 2022. In addition to battling lung cancer, the 71-year-old presenter underwent open heart surgery. But following complications, he was plunged into a deep coma before losing his life. He thus leaves behind his wife Nathalie Marquay and his children Lou, Tom (born from his union with Miss France 1987 in 2002 and 2003) Olivier and Julia (born in 1981 and 1978 from his former marriage to Dominique Bonnet). His last love, he met her thanks to a woman known to all.
It is indeed Geneviève de Fontenay who played matchmaker as she recalled in an interview with The Parisian. “It was thanks to me that Nathalie Marquay met him when she was Miss France. I was invited to How much does it cost [émission que Jean-Pierre Pernaut présentait, NDLR] and Nathalie was in the audience. It was not planned, but I told him at the last moment to come with me that evening. What is it? There was a flash between them. And it was she who started. After the party, she asked Xavier [son fils, NDLR] Jean-Pierre Pernaut’s phone. She wanted him to be on the judging panel. They saw each other again and that’s it“, said the former president of the Miss France committee. After which, she regretted that neither of them had thanked her.
This meeting, the late presenter of the 1 p.m. news from TF1 had mentioned it in February 2020, in 50 Minutes Inside. He had explained to Nikos Aliagas that he had been invited by Geneviève de Fontenay to the Miss France 2002 election, which took place in Mulhouse and which ended with the coronation of Sylvie Tellier (the current general manager of the Miss France society). “Geneviève de Fontenay told me: ‘I’m going to put you next to Nathalie Marquay in the room...”, remembered Jean-Pierre Pernaut. A superb idea since between them, it was love at first sight. They did not stop laughing throughout the event and since this meeting, they have not left each other. The couple united for better and for worse in 2007, at the town hall of the 4th arrondissement of Paris. And the worst was in particular the illnesses of the presenter, who notably fought against prostate cancer in 2018.