Reflecting on Health Challenges in Recent Years: Michel Jasmin’s Journey

More than 16,000 interviews in half a century of career: this is the impressive work of host Michel Jasmin! You will understand my nervousness about meeting this great interviewer, but it was a real pleasure to chat with him in person. I discovered that if he knew how to touch Quebeckers so much, it was thanks to his generosity of soul. Interview with a man of heart, a pioneer who had the courage of his convictions.

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Michel, I come to you today with my head full of childhood memories! Your shows were a big meeting for all Quebecers! We felt that it was your heart that guided you in your work. Am I wrong?

I do not think so! I have the impression that that too, it is perceived, it feels. When you speak from your heart, you cannot be almost happy, a little proud or a little generous. We are complete! And it’s always been that way in my mind. I had dreamed of doing this job since I was eight years old.

In your interviews, there was love and always benevolence in order to seek out the best in everyone. There is work behind that, but also something unique.

When I was still doing my very first interviews, I asked Lise Payette what she thought made a good interview. She told me: “You prepare a first question to understand the interview and a last one, if you need it. In between, you listen.” It’s strong! It has always followed me and it also preceded me in my work: the need to conform to what she advised me. When you start an interview, you prepare, but after that, you have to follow the conversation. It must be said that there are people with whom it is easier, who are more generous. The ones that will give us everything we need, not to do a good interview, but to get something out of it. We learn from each person!

When you were doing TV alongside Michel Louvain and Pierre Marcotte, you were on top! Wasn’t this the best period of traditional TV?

We were giving a show and we had to accept it! Live is the most precious thing; it generates magical moments. You can’t have the same feeling when the show is recorded. When the interviewer and the interviewee are on the same wavelength, they loosen up, and that’s when it happens! You have to surrender, in a way. It gives completely fabulous moments. The guest doesn’t just come to sell his book or his record… Some shows have attracted up to 2.4 million viewers, but I wasn’t getting into that. I wasn’t doing a good show to get the ratings. The person in front of me, I really wanted her to feel alone with me to let go…

When I told my mother that I was going to meet you, she wanted me to ask you: How are you, Michel?

I think it’s going well! But at 78, things happen when they have to happen. We pay more attention, we do more health checks and we go to see the doctors more often than before. That’s life! Since the age of 49, I have been taking medication to combat chronic pain. When we are caught having to take medication, we do it, but reasonably. You have to respect yourself; the doctor is there to treat us and lead us to live a little better and a little longer. In recent years, I have been hospitalized several times; I even had a hospital stay of more than five months. It’s long and it’s unpleasant, but when you have no choice, you have to do it.

Before my father passed away, he told me that one of the hardest things he found was losing friends. On your side, how do you live it?

I found it hard for my friend Pierre Marcotte, because when he died of covid-19 in July, I was hospitalized. I was not able to get in touch with him before his death and I found it infinitely difficult. I couldn’t tell him that he wasn’t leaving alone… I didn’t experience this alone, because my partner was there. He knew the bond that Pierre and I had. My spouse told me that I could not leave the hospital to convey my condolences to the family. I couldn’t do it, because I followed the instructions that I was forced to follow. What hurts me the most is when I look at my phone and have to erase names, phone numbers, because I will never see these people again. That, I think is really difficult… It’s very unfair. (With a tremolo in the voice:) I feel like I shouldn’t stay on this subject…

You have a spouse who supports you on a daily basis, but you have never revealed his identity. For what?

I have a spouse, but I respect his choice to remain in the shadows. He’s someone who has his life, his job, his career, and I don’t want to interfere in that. It will soon be fifteen years that we are together and it has always gone well. It was difficult at first, because I was very happy thanks to him and I wanted to shout his name from the rooftops! Over time, I realized that he hadn’t chosen to have a public life and that I wasn’t going to impose that on him. The best gift I can give her is to respect her choice.

How important is he to you?

Before him, I had another spouse to whom I had told that 90% of my happiness came from my work. He quickly understood that it left him only 10%… Today, I stopped saying that. It is no longer true that I only have 10% for my spouse. I had it for a while, but my current spouse flipped the numbers. It’s 90% for him and 10% for work!

Something struck me when I was young… You were one of the first public figures in Quebec to talk about your sexual orientation. You were a precursor. It takes courage…

I think it’s been covered enough in the media that I have a spouse and not a spouse. My life is masculine, and it will be like that until the end of my days! In the late 1960s, I was forced to come out because at that time my ex-partner and I had received anonymous threatening letters. At one point, enough was enough; It had been going on for a good six months. I went to the police with a big pile of anonymous letters and told them I wanted to file a complaint. The policeman said to me, “You know, Mr. Jasmin, if you file a complaint, it will become public.” I answered him this: “Are you telling me that because I am gay, I will have to endure this without being able to put an end to it?” So, I dove in: I made an official complaint. It hadn’t been long since I had discovered my homosexuality and I was living well with it. That wasn’t going to stop me from filing a complaint. I don’t know if I was really aware of all this, but the individual had pushed me and my ex-husband too far; it had to stop. And the public knew it. I refused to be put in a locker…

In closing, what can I wish you?

Be happy! I think the most precious thing you can wish for someone is to be happy, no matter what life condition they are in. First of all, you have to wish yourself to feel good about yourself. If, as a parent, you discover that your child is homosexual, you must talk to him gently, calmly. Don’t condemn him. I have a son; I’m sure. If he ever reads this article, I wish him to be happy. I want him to live happily making others happy.

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