For many years, Emilie Besse presented the television news for the channels of the Canal + group. Since the beginning of the year, the 38-year-old young woman has turned the page and embarked on an adventure far from the television sets. She tells us.
Between 2008 and 2021, Emilie Besse was one of the essential faces of the Canal group’s news. First on iTELE, then in The Morning on Canal +, then at noon in The new edition. But in early 2021, after a brief stint on C8, the 38-year-old announced her departure. “I spent 14 years in the Canal group, and this story ends. This is what I thought before. Before I realize that what ends is a contract, a legal paper, something soulless that comes loose. The rest, the life, the flesh, the intense, the memories, the meetings, the smiles, the warmth of the people, their gaze, their words, it does not stop. 14 years old is a good age to do what you really want, to accomplish what seems to make sense to us. The sequel is coming soon. Soon“She wrote then on her Instagram account. The rest, Emilie Besse quickly materialized. TV-Leisure, she tells us about her new life far from the television sets.
“I was no longer happy to do the job I did”
Télé-Loisirs: What made you decide to quit television?
Emilie Besse : I made a fairly simple observation: I was no longer happy to do the job I was doing and then I had no real prospect. In November 2020, I was returning from maternity leave, the management of the channel made me understand that there was no project for me. They told me to wait until January. But in January, there was nothing either. So I tried to find a way to do something that was more comfortable for me and more intellectually satisfying.
What happened next ?
I searched for a while, I questioned myself. And then one day a very close friend said to me: ‘Don’t overthink it. If you had to decide now, what would you do?‘. I thought about this project that I had for a long time, that of writing a book. And then an event prompted me to take the plunge. The close friend I mentioned earlier has passed away. I realized then that we didn’t have a lot of time in front of us. I had talked a lot about what I wanted to do with this friend that I had just lost. So I started. I wrote my novel (The good days, editions Jean-Claude Lattès).
“Go back to school at 40, I recommend it to everyone”
Today you are following a CAP cuisine in the prestigious Ferrandi school. When did you want to follow this path?
After writing, my other passion is cooking. When I was little, I wanted to open a restaurant. This idea continued to run through my head but to make it my job, I had to learn the basics. So I put my pride aside and enrolled in a school. Going back to school at 40, I recommend it to everyone. I go through all the stages of my life.
How do you cope with this reconversion?
Super good, I am super happy. I really take it as a chance, as a kind of rebirth. Every morning, I am happy to get up to go to work.
It must still be dizzying to leave the hushed world of TV to start all over again?
What would have really taken courage from me would have been to keep doing what I no longer wanted to do. And then I am also lucid. My professional situation so far has allowed me to have a comfortable salary, therefore to save money and to have four years ahead of me to try something. I know that I have this chance and that a lot of people could not make it. Of course, the first few days at school were really tough. It’s a very demanding job, which requires a lot of humility. Then will come the question of professional integration when I have finished school, to enter working life again. It may not be easy, but I have no doubts that I made the right choice.
Is television definitely over?
I turned the page. Afterwards, I have fond memories of it, I kept some contacts in this environment. And I know I have this chord in my bow, so if the opportunity arose to do something on TV that would be in line with what I want to do today, why not. But that’s not my priority at all.