Joker of 13 Hours of TF1, Jacques Legros gave an interview to your magazine Closer – on newsstands this Friday, October 21. He returns in particular to the pact he sealed with Jean-Pierre Pernaut.
Between them there was no competition. For 24 years, Jacques Legros was Jean-Pierre Pernaut’s joker on TF1’s 13 Hours newscast. But do not see an eternal second jealous of the holder. Jacques Legros never wanted to be caliph instead of the caliph. “He knew he feared nothing“, confirms Jacques Legros. While he publishes a story entitled Behind the screen, 40 years at the heart of the media(Ed. du Rocher), the one who now replaces Marie-Sophie Lacarrau gave an interview to your magazine Closer – to be found in its entirety on newsstands this Friday, October 21. The opportunity to return to his link with Jean-Pierre Pernaut. The 13 Hours star could have ousted his replacement at any time. But he never did. For the simple and good reason that the two journalists, despite some disagreements, had blind faith in each other. At the dawn of their collaboration, they even made a pact. “From the start, we talked“, reveals Jacques Legros. And to detail: “We are the same age [JPP avait 10 mois de plus, ndlr]our common interest is to last as long as possible together“.
In the service of this big machine that is the television news, Jean-Pierre Pernaut and Jacques Legros therefore insisted on not “not encroach on the other’s diary“.”Everyone is master in their own house… Jean-Pierre had complete confidence in me, and I in him.“, concludes Jacques Legros. did not prevent some disputes. And this, in particular during the first confinement. Having fragile health, Jean-Pierre Pernaut was forced to stay at home. On the air, it was therefore Jacques Legros who ensured the proper functioning of the newspaper. Except that the incumbent has very badly experienced this forced estrangement. He therefore decided, in agreement with the channel, to appear at the end of the news from his home where a mini-studio has been installed. For the first time, the two men had to share the poster, which was not easy. So much so that there were a few outbursts of voices.
Attacked by Nathalie Marquay, Jacques Legros responds
“He wanted to keep the leading role and asked the team more than necessary. (…) He wanted more and more to take control of the entire newspaper. I was starting to boil insideuntil one day I broke out, gathered my things and made my way back to the parking lot and my car. Since he wanted to do the newspaper for me, let him come and do it!“, reports Jacques Legros in his book. A confidence which earned him the wrath of the widow of Jean-Pierre Pernaut, whose remarks were virulent, even accusing him of “post-mortem jealousy“. Nathalie Marquay believes that Jacques Legros was doing “whore blows” her husband by reducing its airtime as much as possible during this period. Response from the interested party? “Nothing. Everyone is free to say what they say.” “I relate in my book a single moment of humor on my part for 24 years. It was during the lockdown, we were exhausted, like all the French. And for the first time we shared the same diary. I had the first role and he the second because TF1, who knew he was in fragile health, wanted to protect him by bringing him in from his home during the news. Good, knowing the entire temperament of Jean-Pierrehe sometimes wanted to change the course…“, he recalls simply. A way of closing the debate.
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