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Jane Birkin: why she did not live the departure of Charlotte Gainsbourg in New York


In 2013, Charlotte Gainsbourg settled permanently in New York. A departure that his mother, Jane Birkin experienced very badly. The latter explains why.

Early 2014. Charlotte Gainsbourg leaves France. Direction New York for a new life with her children. She then left behind her husband Yvan Attal who continued his professional activities in France, her sister Lou Doillon and her mother, Jane Birkin. The latter also had a very bad experience of the departure of her daughter.. « For me it was a painful and sad separation but one that I understood perfectly well », She confides in the columns of Gala this Thursday, February 11. Already because mother and daughter share a ” essential complicity ». So, inevitably, the last seven years have not always been easy. ” Actually, we haven’t been able to have real conversations for a few years, she is married, she has her children », She explains. When her daughter offered to film her for a documentary, Jane Birkin did not hesitate for a single second. ” The possibility of going with her to Brittany, Tokyo, New York to chat, to say things to each other … for me, it was great emotion She enthuses.

The trigger for Charlotte Gainsbourg’s departure

But besides the distance and the conversations they couldn’t have during this long time, Jane Birkin was especially affected by the timing of Charlotte Gainsbourg’s departure. And for good reason, it took place just after the sudden death, in December 2013, of Kate Barry, the eldest daughter of Jane Birkin. A loss from which the singer has not recovered. ” When my daughter died, I lost that confidence. I did not know what to do. I was out of life, finally I was living a kind of parallel life “, She revealed in 2018 at the microphone of France Inter. More than ever, Jane Birkin therefore needed the presence and support of her daughters.. Conversely, Charlotte Gainsbourg needed a change of scenery. ” I was trying to run away from my emotional ties because my sister had just died », She told the magazine It explaining why his choice fell on New York.

« So it was out of the question to go to London. Los Angeles is not my thing – the sweetness of life that people talk about, I don’t feel it. There was still New York “. And to detail with Psychologies Magazine : « When we go through this, when you lose someone so close and loved, either we wake up with a very strong desire to live, or we no longer want it at all “. It was a real shock for Charlotte Gainsbourg who made the choice of life. ” I had to pull myself together. It made me realize what I wanted for myself. Probably for the first time in my life. Because when I had lived the shock of my father’s death at 19, I did not have the weapons to take control of myself », She unveiled. A way of mourning that his mother finally understood perfectly.

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