It’s the fight of his life. Co-founder and vice-president of Sidaction since 1994, Line Renaud continues the battle against HIV. At 92, the artist wears this association like a cross around his neck. Guest on the set of Daily, Thursday January 28, 2021, the singer confided, with great emotion, on the reasons for this engagement. "I was in Los Angeles when it happened so I was facing people who were dying, one after the other. Anything that happens across the Atlantic will come to us too", she remembers, her voice broken. Isabelle Mergault's new enemy remembers an event that marked her in the 80s … and forever: the death of the wife and daughter by actor Paul Michael Glaser, both living with HIV. Upset, Line Renaud will never be the same again.
A path strewn with pitfalls
Line Renaud had to fight against many detractors. "We told me 'it will be hard for your popularity"She tells Yann Barthès who asks her, in return:"Has it been?"The former journalist remains in any case shocked by received messages after the launch of theAssociation of Artists Against AIDS, in 1984. "It was in the beginning. For a year, I received letters of insult. I never received one. For a year, I received", she blurted out before revealing their content:"‘they wanted it, let them die.‘"
Present on the set, Jean Paul Gaultier, ambassador of Sidaction, recognized the importance of Line Renaud's contribution in this fight. "She started really early. By bringing in international personalities who also given the example, everyone began to understand. And there was this show [the Sidaction, ed.] who, for the first time said the word AIDS. We used to say, 'this is the disease'. " The two guests have been united for a long time in research against AIDS. Line Renaud and Jean-Paul Gaultier are also organizing a "Fashion for Sidaction" auction for the benefit of research.
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