In The Next Journey, Wednesday October 22, 2023 on France 2, Line Renaud plays Jacqueline, an octogenarian determined to say her last goodbyes to her husband Richard, in the hotel room where the couple spent their very first night 63 years ago. A fiction inspired by the true story of Bernard and Georgette, two retired spouses who ended their days together, hand in hand, at the Lutetia palace in Paris in 2013. For many years, Line Renaud has defended the right to active assistance in dying and the legalization of euthanasia. At 95, the former magazine leader herself reflected on her own end of life and how to prepare for it now. “The important thing is freedom and control over your life until the end of the road. I too have prepared every detail of what I call ‘after me’. You must remain master of your destiny, without losing your humor.” she declared in the columns of Pocket TVon newsstands Monday October 2, 2023. The opportunity for the inexhaustible actress to talk about how she would like to leave. “I wonder if a person has ever died in a fit of laughter. That would suit me just fine!”
This abortion which almost cost Line Renaud her life
Widowed since 1995, Line Renaud lived for more than 40 years with her husband, the composer Loulou Gasté, 20 years her senior, who died at age 86 of a heart attack after a battle with bone cancer. Simone Pauline Renard, her mother, died in 1999 at the age of 94 following an intestinal illness. “I shared very difficult, painful end-of-life experiences,” Dany Boon’s great friend explained during a speech at the National Assembly on September 28, 2021, to call on parliamentarians to legislate on active euthanasia. “I dare to look death in the face. I am in no hurry but I am not shying away either, no one will steal my death from me. I would like it to be peaceful, surrounded by those I love and Pirate, my dog. In serenity and joy rather than in pain”confided to Pocket TV the one who was never a mother, to her greatest regret. Loulou Gasté, his great love, did not want to be a father. This is the reason why the actress Ch’ti from Nieppe (North) had to undergo a clandestine abortion at the age of 18, in the mid-1940s, which caused the onset of sepsis. “[Le moment] the strongest was when I almost lost my life after an abortion that went wrong and Loulou declared his love for me”, she again declared to our colleagues from Pocket TV.