Claude Lelouch has been sharing the life of Valérie Perrin for 15 years now. And the two lovers have almost missed their story. The novelist looks back on these years spent in the arms of the director in the columns of Paris Match this Wednesday, December 29, 2021.
15 years of love and 30 years apart for the couple Claude Lelouch and Valérie Perrin. It was in 2006 that the two artists met, when the director inaugurated a place in his name in Deauville. “A journalist, friend of Valérie, gives me an open letter that she had written for a magazine. I slip it into my jacket and forget it “, he remembers in the columns of Paris Match in May 2020. But two months later, the father of seven rediscovers this word by chance. “In fact, she was addressing my films. She was flattering my ego, no doubt, but she especially noted in my cinema things that nobody had seen“, says the 84-year-old screenwriter. Only, the novelist had left no contact. So he started looking for her to try to find her. “We finally met over coffee. And, gift, she was lovely. With her, I who have always been a great researcher, I found the woman of my life. At my age, I no longer believed it“, confides Claude Lelouch.
“Him and me, we did that “
And 15 years after this meeting, the couple are still together and very happy. And Valérie Perrin is full of admiration for her companion and does not hide it. “Claude revealed me. It was by collaborating on the script for ‘Bastard, we love you’ that he gave me confidence, that he almost taught me dramatic construction. And that’s why I sent my first manuscript to Albin Michel … “ , tells the 54-year-old brunette to Paris Match this Wednesday, December 29, 2021.
And the still photographer did the same to him. “Those who have known Claude for a long time tell me that he is fulfilled, happy, in great shape. And I think I have something to do with it. He feels loved, it reassures him that I am close to his children, that I am looking for harmony despite the shouts of the past … Him and me, we did it“, confides Valérie Perrin. And it is not the director who will be able to say the opposite.