At only 28 years old, Julien Courbet lost his father in a tragic and very brutal way. While he thought he still had many years to live with his dad, the journalist who started on TF1 in the show Sacred Evening learned the unimaginable: his father died. Party in Reunion at the time of his death, Julien Courbet had received the terrible news by a friend, warned by his sister. A traumatic memory for the host who then had the feeling that his whole world had suddenly collapsed.
The former columnist of TPMP had recounted this tragic event to France Blue : “My father left early because of a car accident but he was not driving. He was walking on a sidewalk and a gentleman who had drunk more beers than usual wanted his life to end prematurely.”
The guy only got a three-month suspended sentence.
“He was commercial and left with his station wagon all week. On weekends, we didn’t talk too much. It was a bit like in the song Mon vieux, by Daniel Guichard. It was when we were starting to get closer that he was run over by a car. My father was walking on a sidewalk and was mowed down by a guy who had drunk too many beers and then ran away.(…) The guy only got a three-month suspended sentence. I was 28 years old. It was the first drama of my life.” he had explained to TV Major Channels in 2020.
A terrible injustice for the host who therefore did not have time to show his dad the great television career that awaited him.Because of that he never came on a TV set and that’s something I couldn’t cure. It pains me to know that I couldn’t share this with him.” he explained.
It shocked me
On the other hand, he had discovered after his death that his father, however so modest in appearance, was extremely proud of him. He told : “When he died, we had to empty his office, it shocked me. There were lots of pictures of me, articles of me… We never talked about it because it was withdrawn and that’s all that I miss terribly.“
One thing is certain, Julien Courbet – who lost his mother in July 2021 to Alzheimer’s disease – will never mourn his late dad. A question has haunted him since this tragic accident: “‘Could he have been saved?‘”.