“She knew how to tame the beast.” It is in these terms, certainly very colorful, that Michel Sardou summary his relationship with Anne-Marie Périerin the columns of Paris Match, in June 2022. A sentence that may surprise at first glance, but which actually sums up their relationship well. The popular singer, who celebrates his 77th birthday this Friday, January 26, and his wife, one year his junior, are different in many ways. However, they seem complementary. It is undoubtedly also for this reason that their marriage is still relevant today. If their union dates back to October 11, 1999, the interpreter of I will love you and the former editor-in-chief of the magazine SHE dating much earlier.
Their love story is not born in full light, but begins in the shadowsas the septuagenarian artist recalls in his biography I’m not dead… I’m sleeping! (Ed. XO). “It was an episodic relationship, we met from time to time. She had her life, she had children, she was married and so was I“, explains Michel Sardou, on the airwaves of RTL, in 2021. As time goes by, and despite the sting of secrecy, the singer, determined to speed things up, takes matters in hand.”One day I called him, I said, ‘Listen, do you want to marry me? Answer me yes or no, that way we’ll save time. There’s no need for me to court you frantically, we’ve known each other for 25 years.’ She was in New York, I was in Paris. And it happened like this“, remembers the person concerned.
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Anne-Marie Périer, the third wife of Michel Sardou
If the proposal is somewhat confusing, it is still tempting for Anne-Marie Périer, who has already been married to the actor and director Claude Barrois, the father of her two children. The latter, also in love with the singer, agrees to give him his hand. For his part, Michel Sardou is not his first visit to the mayor either. In the past, he was already married to Françoise Pettré, mother of his two daughters, then to Elisabeth Haas, also nicknamed “Babette”, who gave him two boys. Whatever, love is stronger than anything. On October 11, 1999, just a few months after his second divorce, the interpreter of Love sickness marries third marriage to Anne-Marie Périer, at the town hall of Neuilly-sur-Seine, during a ceremony headed by Nicolas Sarkozy. The beginning of a long and beautiful romance…
A couple who understand each other
Michel Sardou, who is one of the most famous singers of his generation, loves to be pampered. With Anne-Marie Périer, he is served. The latter relinquishes her position as editor-in-chief to spend more time with her husband. “I didn’t ask him to give up his career for me.”nevertheless wishes to clarify Michel Sardou to Current wife. “She chose to withdraw to allow us to live together, and spend more time together.” Taking her role as wife very seriously, the sister of Jean-Marie Périer watches over everything. From the organization of the house to her husband’s health, nothing seems to escape her. It is moreover what makes Michel Sardou fall for, who recognizes that his wife reminds him of another who meant a lot: his mother Jackie. “You have to take it seriously because my mother always watched me, she was my squire. My wife is the same. She looks after everything: health, fitness, diet (…) She manages everything“, confides the person concerned, who believes that he would be “totally lost” without her.
In addition to being attentive to him, Anne-Marie Périer is listening. In November 2022, on the set of 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, Michel Sardou readily sings the praises of the one who “supports“for more than twenty years:”She gives very good advice, she has the right eye and the right ear. It’s important to us“, assures the artist in front of Laurent Delahousse, implying that he regularly rests on his wife to discuss his career choices.
Anne-Marie Périer is also an understanding woman. Herself the daughter of actor François Périer, she knows how tormented beings artists are. She does not make Michel Sardou pay for his anxieties or his doubts. On the contrary. “She is a woman who understands artistsit comes from the fact that she herself is the daughter of an artist, that of a great actor. She knows our anxieties, our questions, our fears. We are not easy to live with“, admits the one who was friends with Johnny Hallyday. “We are all worriers, traumatized at birth. My father was the same, my wife’s father, François Périer, was worse than me. We are all seriously ill and she knows how to treat us very well.“, he adds, on the air of CNews, in 2021. A nice declaration to the one who shares his life.
Michel Sardou: his wife accepts him as he is
If he admits that he is not always “easy to live“, Michel Sardou found a woman, not only who understands him, but who accepts him as he is. However, his faults are not lost on his wife. “The character he has! It’s not easy to live with. His outbursts are in two stages: he curls up into a ball, calms down, then half an hour later, puts it back on again“, tells Anne-Marie Périer, to our colleagues at Figaro, in 2021.
Despite his angry nature, Michel Sardou never stay angry for long. “It’s not in his nature to settle scores. Michel has the kindness of his father and the flapper of his mother. That makes a good person“, observes with tenderness the one who shares his life. Far from the image of the grumpy artist who presents himself in the media, Anne-Marie Périer ensures that Michel Sardou also knows how to be funny. “I have a lot of fun with him. He has a sense of repartee“, she says. And producer Jean-Claude Camus confirms her statements: “He is very warm when he agrees to let go.“The singer even compares himself to”a cuddly bear” : “I have always been tender and affectionate towards women. I am not a bad man. I just happen to be a little grumpy sometimes. You have to know how to take me.” Anne-Marie Périer understood this well…
Photo credits: @BESTIMAGE / GALA ART DIRECTION