On September 12, 2022, Michel Drucker celebrates his 80th birthday. A beautiful age that goes hand in hand with an exceptional career: sixty years of television! Everyone wonders about the secret of success and longevity in their career. Part of the answer lies in one person: his wife Dany Saval. In the magazine Paris Match who devotes a beautiful file to the living legend of the PAF, she confides with sincerity and tenderness on her relationship with the animator-star and in particular on the role she plays in the couple. Without her, it is certain that Michel Drucker would have been a different man.
Without taking gloves, Dany Saval tells how the roles are distributed in the couple she has formed with Michel Drucker since 1973: “I saw immediately that Michel did not know how to manage anything, neither money nor the most elementary practical tasks. Only one thing was within his reach: packing his suitcase! The rest escaped him entirely and it is always like that. Twenty years ago, he didn’t even know where our fridge was. I took care of everything.“
If one can think at first sight that she paints a not very responsible portrait of her famous husband, it is not so. With infinite tenderness and the experience of their couple, she explains how each of their roles came naturally and that they were both complementary. Indeed, the former dancer at the Moulin Rouge then successful actress in the United States has always been a responsible, mature and independent woman: “Jhad to raise my daughter alone [Stéphanie, dont le père biologique est le compositeur Maurice Jarre] in the United States and, in my profession, I had also built myself by my own means. We were perfectly complementary, he and I.”
Do not tell her that she played the mothers, Dany Saval simply explains that she allowed her husband to be able to concentrate on his work in the best conditions. She thus recalls the childhood of her husband, whose father was arrested in the France of Pétain, who then grew up with the pressure of school. Indeed, unlike his brothers who shone in their schooling, Michel Drucker underwent his studies, suffering from anxiety and attention disorder. Dany Saval played a special role so that he could succeed professionally: “I wanted to offer him a universe of serenity that allows him to concentrate. I lightened it from everyday lifeHer husband also has his own qualities: he has an excellent memory and is very punctual.
Refusing to take ownership of his success, Mrs. Drucker nevertheless remembers valuable advice she gave him and which he obviously followed. Seeing the potential of her husband, she advised him not to confine himself to being a sports journalist: “One day you should have a show of your own and present it.” The future has confirmed that she was more than right. He received on his set the biggest stars, such as Celine Dion and Jean-Jacques Goldman. The latter were also present to celebrate the cathodic anniversary of the presenter of Can’t wait for Sunday.