On the cover of Paris Match, Stella speaks, a year after the death of her father Jean-Paul Belmondo. She talks about her relationship with the cinema legend but also confides in her life as a young woman in London. A bold choice for the 19-year-old girl who lost her dad at just 18. Indeed, she is the fourth and last of siblings and was born when the actor had just turned 70.
Why did Stella Belmondo choose to leave France, baccalaureate, when she was barely 18, had just lost her father and is so close to her mother Natty? She explains it in Paris Match : “I spent all my schooling, from the middle section of kindergarten to the baccalaureate, in a bilingual private school. I speak English fluently. I also learned Italian and Chinese. For a year, I continue a double course in a university in London, in business management and international relations.”
Passionate about history since her childhood and pushed by her mother to succeed in her studies – her father Bébel was not too fussy about school results and preferred to see her do stunts -, Stella Belmondo does not however close the door to the cinema , assuming the fact that his surname arouses curiosities. But no question for her to limit herself to being a mediocre “girl of” on the screens.
Solid, confident, Stella Belmondo felt ready to live abroad, after having spent her whole life in the same school and with the same friends, with her parents. But the challenge was daunting:To leave everything to settle in a city where I didn’t know anyone, to study in a huge university was a shock. I had to learn autonomy, shopping, cooking, which is great in itself, but it happened just as I was losing my father. It was very hard. I asked myself the question of giving up, but I held on for him, thinking of him, because I know that in my place, he would never have given up.“
Find the full interview in the magazine Paris Match from October 6, 2022