Roland Giraud will be on the small screen this Tuesday, April 5. The 80-year-old actor holds one of the roles in on the other side of the bed, comedy by Pascale Pouzadoux with Sophie Marceau and Dany Boon broadcast as a bonus on TFX. If the characters of the two heroes exchange their role of father and mother of the family, no such choice to make on the side of Roland Giraud and his wife Maaïke Jansen. To manage their daughter Géraldine – murdered with her companion in 2004 – the two have always managed but at no time has there been any question of one of them giving up their dreams of comedy. On the other hand, Roland Giraud has not always been faithful as he had promised when he said ‘yes’ in 1966. If he loves his wife more than anything, the actor revealed that he had failed several times with women other than his own.
He had particularly confided in his pranks in a book entitled sorrow of life. On the set of Couch, presented at the time by Marc-Olivier Fogiel, Roland Giraud had indicated that he regretted this book and the behaviors it related in its pages. One of them even concerns the sister of Maaïke Jansen, betrayal on which she passed the towel: “It’s part of the weaknesses I had, totally unjustifiable and unjustified. I don’t know what else to say. I understand that this is very destabilizing for Maaïke. (…) She proves she’s forgiven me ’cause she’s still here.”
Aware of the chance he had to have such an understanding wife, Roland Giraud painted a less than rosy portrait of the past years and the many infidelities he committed: “I am a weak and fallible man. I am aware that Maaïke could have left me several times when I had great success. I have sometimes let myself be carried away by these currents which take you away from the right port. (…) I had an attitude, extremely human, which proves that I am not a saint. I try to do my best. When you have a bit of success, you feel like you’re growing wings, and I actually had weaknesses that I obviously regret. It’s true that she could have left me. She didn’t, I love her all the more. Yes, I was a little shabby. I can, being a weak and fallible man, do mean things.”
Their chaotic past is now behind them thanks to a rather singular way of life. Unlike old couples enjoying their peaceful retirement under the same roof, Roland Giraud and Maaïke Jansen have separate apartments: “He lives on the same landing, he even comes naked to me. We see each other all the time“, confided the wife still on the set of the Couch. Their recipe for happiness, the two actors therefore seem to have found it!