Alain Delon: how family feud brought Shakespearean tragedy to final years
It has been some time since Alain Delon was last seen in the village of Douchy, his country home for the past half a century and the place he designated as his final resting place. Local people remember when back in the 1970s and 80s he would be spotted at the nearby chemist shop or the only restaurant, or even at the annual school fete with Mireille Darc, an actor and one of the great loves of his life.
“When I was a schoolgirl they would come for the end-of-year party. They would play Father Christmas and give everyone a present,” one woman recalled.
Christian, a florist, remembered delivering the actor’s favourite flowers – red and white roses and white lilies – to the estate known as La Brûlerie, whose long stone wall stretches for nearly a mile and a half along the road to the village in the Loiret department of central France.
“He was always very jovial and liked a joke but he wasn’t a showoff. He didn’t play the star or artist here. He was considered a local,” he said.
On Sunday the Douchyssois, as they are known, turned out to say adieu to their most famous resident after learning of Delon’s death aged 88, and lay flowers at the wrought-iron gate of the home where he had lived as a recluse with failing health for the last year.
It was here, 85 miles (140km) southeast of Paris, that Delon had declared he wished to be buried, near the chapel built in a cemetery he created for more than 30 of his beloved dogs.
And it was here that after months of public infighting, Delon’s children sat down united in grief to compose a joint statement.
“Alain-Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, as well as [his dog] Loubo, are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father. He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family,” they said in a statement, adding that the family asked for privacy.
It was also here that in his decline Delon was to witness sibling tensions erupt at the beginning of this year when, severely diminished by a stroke in 2019 and a slow-developing lymphoma diagnosed in 2022, he was at the centre of a flurry of bitter accusations, squabbles involving secret recordings and threats of legal action.
It was hinted at – and hoped for – that the actor’s health was so fragile he was largely unaware of the Shakespearean tragedy unfolding as the three evicted Delon’s Japanese companion, Hiromi Rollin, from the property a year ago and paraded their grievances in the press and on television. The children said their father was still lucid, forcing Delon’s lawyer to step in earlier this year.
“It has to stop and everyone needs to calm down. That’s enough now,” Christophe Ayela said.
Delon had a famously stormy relationship with his two sons, Anthony, 59, whose mother, Nathalie, was his only wife, and Alain-Fabien, 30, whose mother is Rosalie van Breemen, a Dutch model and journalist. Le Monde suggested Delon’s own turbulent childhood left him incapable of establishing relationships with his sons. Delon was four when his parents divorced and he was sent to a foster home.
The actor made no secret that he favoured his daughter, Anouchka, 33, whose mother is also Breemen, and who lives in Switzerland. “To no other woman have I so often said I love you,” he said in 2008, adding a decade later: “I have a daughter who is the love of my life, perhaps a little too much with regard to the others.”
A third son, Christian Aaron Boulogne, known as Ari, born to the German rock star Nico of the Velvet Underground and whom the actor never recognised as his son, was partly raised by Delon’s mother. He died in 2023 aged 60 after long-term drug addiction.
Before Delon’s death, the family confirmed that in line with French law – under which a parent cannot disinherit their children, however estranged or conflicted the relationship – his estate, which wildly varying estimates put at between €50m and €300m (£43m and £256m), would be divided into quarters with a required 25% going to each child.
The actor was free to decide what to do with the final 25% and has reportedly left it to Anouchka, giving her half of his fortune in total. It is an inequitable disbursement but one that Delon’s children have publicly said they do not contest, insisting their feud was not about money. In February, Anthony said: “There is no inheritance war.”
Outside La Brûlerie on Sunday, once the site of a holiday camp for railway workers’ children and surrounded by woodland, villagers were remembering the man not his money as gendarmes kept journalists and television crews at a respectful distance, allowing only mourners through to lay flowers.
In French media, Delon had the last word. In a 1996 question-and-answer sequence with the TV presenter Bernard Pivot, the actor was asked: “If God exists, what would you like to hear him say to you after your death?”
Without hesitation, Delon replied: “Since this is your greatest and deepest regret, I know, come, I’ll take you to your father and mother, so that for the first time, at last, you can see them together.”
• This article was amended on 19 August 2024 to correct the currency conversions.