An emblematic face of French cinema for many years, Charlotte Gainsbourg was predestined to embark on an artistic career. Indeed, the actress is the daughter of the famous singer Serge Gainsbourg and the actress Jane Birkin, also a musician at the same time. Due to the very strong media coverage of the couple formed by her two parents, Charlotte Gainsbourg lived part of her childhood under the eye of the cameras. Uncomfortable, she quickly decided to withdraw from media life, in order to protect herself from the excesses of celebrity. This is how the young teenager made the choice to join “a luxury boarding school for rich kids” from the age of 13. Now aged 52, Charlotte Gainsbourg also forms a very glamorous couple with the filmmaker Yvan Attal, who is the father of her three children. However, before she started dating her longtime partner in the early ’90s, the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin had her first love story with a man much older than her.
Charlotte Gainsbourg: “I didn’t want people to know too much about me”
The actress also spoke about this subject in 2016, as part of an interview with the magazine Interview. “I stayed with him for five years, until I was 19. […] I didn’t want people to know too much about me, which I obviously regret today, because I closed myself off. But it was my own way of handling things.” she revealed. At the time, Charlotte Gainsbourg was extremely discreet about her love life. “Because I was living this secret love affair – because he was much older – everything was a secret, always, even with my parents“, the actress pointed out. Unfortunately for her, the end of this romantic relationship came just before one of the worst moments of her life. “I was very close to my family when my father died. I was 19. It was a time when I needed him because this love story had just ended, and I was in a bad state. I was about to move in with my dad when he died, so it was very intense.” concluded Charlotte Gainsbourg.