The famous rocker had a long love affair with singer Sylvie Vartan, which ended in divorce. A book looks back on their tumultuous relationship.
It was in December 1961 that Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan met for the first time. They formalize their relationship, October 15, 1963 at the microphone of Europe 1 by declaring: “Until now, we said we were friends. Now we can say we’re almost engaged.” On April 14, 1966, Sylvie Vartan gave birth to their first child, David. If the couple appears very happy for a few years, it will experience a tumultuous history, especially when the singer has an extra-marital relationship with one of his choristers. It is in particular on this period that the journalist Sam Bernett returns in his book, Johnny Circus – johnny’s nightmare tour, published on June 1st by L’Archipel editions.
“Johnny came to dinner one evening with Jean-Jacques Debout and Chantal Goya. I imagined it flamboyant ! He was infinitely sad, in tears, because it was a question of divorce with Sylvie Vartan. My friend Jean-Jacques Debout comforted him, but he cried the whole meal.“, confides in the book Léon Gendre, the mayor of La Flotte. “When he left the stage, Johnny was crying. Before escaping to go to London a few hours earlier, he had learned that Sylvie was asking for a divorce. During this sequence, he was not acting“, explains Sacha Rhoul, the singer’s former secretary and bodyguard. A complicated love story that will end in divorce in 1980.
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“A volcanic lovebetween the two singers
A few months ago, singer Sylvie Vartan spoke on Instagram about her chaotic love affair with Johnny Hallyday: “It was with great emotion that I found myself transported into this whirlwind that was our life. Volcanic and intense love filled with memories that will never fade“, she explained. In 2022, she also confided in her relationship with the singer, with whom she had so much in common: “We were very similar, like brother and sister, we understood the same things, we felt the same emotions. We understood that we had to be separated, after we found each other, it was never lukewarm. It was always the fury, the fury to live”she said on France 3.