For more than 40 years, Jean-Pierre Pernaut was one of the essential faces of TF1. A self-confident journalist, he had set up very precise rules within the editorial staff.
In more than four decades, Jean-Pierre Pernaut will have marked TF1. Between the journalist who died on March 2 at the first channel, it’s a real love story that began in 1975 and ended at the end of 2020. First presenter of 20 hours, Jean-Pierre Pernaut then switched to the 1 p.m. news he presented for no less than 33 years before giving way to Marie-Sophie Lacarrau. Known for his rants, his passion for the French regions and his closeness to correspondents, the journalist imposed strict rules on TF1. “There was no discussion, it was like that. There were things that should not be touched”told Jacques Legros in the columns of Parisian.
Among the things that should not be touched for Jean-Pierre Pernaut? “The fact of being openly opposed to the passage of the speed limit from 90 km/h to 80 km/h”. Jacques Legros, who worked alongside him for many years summarizes: “Jean-Pierre was on the air as he was in life. He was doing Pernaut and it was accepted by everyone”. At TF1, the husband of Nathalie Marquay was “the patriarch” which had “authority over ‘his’ correspondents, as he called them”. “As soon as we tried to touch one of their hairs, it was war with the management. He stepped up to the plate”, added the journalist, who is currently replacing Marie-Sophie Lacarrau, victim of an ophthalmic problem since last December.
Jean-Pierre Pernaut “was not retired”
Indispensable face of the small screen, Jean-Pierre Pernaut took months before agreeing to ease off as his wife confided, in tears, the day after his disappearance. “He was not retired, after all. He was a workaholic. He always worried about the TF1 family, he always wanted it to be done wellassured Nathalie Marquay on the TF1 antenna, of course. Every day he asked for an audience.” And it is thanks to her that he left the first channel, in December 2020. “At the start, he didn’t want to retire. I told him ‘I want you to take advantage of us, the children are grown up, I want us to travel together’. We were looking forward to being able to be together, to make an old couple”added the ex-beauty queen.
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