On August 13, 2003, John Paul Belmondo becomes a father again at the age of 70. A year after his marriage to Natty Tardivel, he thus welcomes his fourth child. Nineteen years later, the baby has grown into a beautiful young woman who is now studying business management and international relations in London. She decided to express herself in the pages of Paris Match which she covers. The discreet young lady confides in her relationship with her illustrious dad who died on September 6, 2021, in order to show who she really is and her true relationship with the legend of cinema.
She should have been called Eva, but her mom Natty preferred Stella, “a lucky star for two wounded lives“. Stella Belmondo speaks with both modesty and sincerity about her atypical duo with a father who was not like those of the others. A year ago, he left leaving an immense legacy for France. But where Does this wise young girl fit into this intense life?She decided to speak with her own voice, certainly tired of letting others imagine who she was or should be.
However, this is nothing out of the ordinary:Six months ago, or even two months ago, that would have been impossible. The subject is always painful. I find it hard to talk about it, including to my loved ones.” Because Stella is nothing like the child of a capricious star who reveals everything on social networks: “I am a very reserved person. I hesitated to do it with youbut I am finally happy to mention it, to make sure that the memory of what we lived together can last.“
He was the worst person it could fall on.
From her dad, she inherited so many things: his kindness, his patience or his generosity, but also his strength, which allowed him to overcome his disappearance. She did not know the Jean-Paul Belmondo of the stunt years, but the one who suffered a stroke in 2001, two years before his birth. “He was the worst person it could fall on. But I never had the image of the sick or elderly father who could have made me pity, quite the contrary. I saw what efforts he was able to accomplish for me“, she explains. He held on for eighteen years, keeping his promise: to cling to life to see it grow until he reached majority. Together, they shared so many moments of complicity, small nonsense, while with her mother, with whom she is fusional, she was well framed.
As for her father’s films, she hasn’t yet managed to see everything: “I sometimes tried to put on the DVD of one of his masterpieces that I have yet to see and that everyone is talking about. I could never press the play button. It’s too early.“It will take time. Stella has it, and now she has her own lucky star watching over her.
Find the full interview in the magazine Paris Match of October 6, 2022.