She will have been the wife of the French singer until her last breath. According to the Belgian daily The future, Therese Michielsen, nicknamed "Loaf" by Jacques Brel, died on the night of March 30-31, 2020 at the age of 93, 42 years after the disappearance of her husband, who died of lung cancer. Born in 1936 in Etterbeek in Belgium, Thérèse Michielsen had crossed paths with the singer in the late 1940s, even before he met celebrity. Ten years later, the two lovebirds get married and give birth to three daughters, Chantal, born in 1961 and died in 1999, France born in 1953, and Isabelle born in 1958. A beautiful family in appearance, yet marked by the absence Jacques Brel who will end his days with another woman.
Jacques Brel refused divorce all his life
Indeed, even if the couple remained united until death between them, Jacques Brel ended his life with a completely different woman: Maddly Bamy, actress from Guadeloupe, met on the set of Adventure is adventure, released in 1972. However, Jacques Brel will refuse all his life to divorce his wife. In a letter sent to Thérèse Michielsen, published years later, he will return to this unconventional love about his "loaf": "Perhaps we are now above or rather beyond love? Complicit, kind and tender." He will dedicate a song that has become cult to him, Song of Old Lovers, released in 1967.
Despite this visceral love that will resist divorce, Jacques Brel will take off in 1973 and will never see the one he married in 1950. The interpreter of "Do not leave me" will leave France five years before his death aboard a sailboat with Maddly Bamy. A few days before succumbing to the disease, Jacques Brel will have Maddly Bamy's face engraved next to his on the stone adorning his grave. An affront to Thérèse Michielsen …
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