This May 22, 2024, Charles Aznavour would have celebrated his 100th birthday! An age that he has not crossed but that did not prevent him from becoming a French icon. His memory has always been present in people’s minds since his death on October 1, 2018 at the age of 94, and his heirs are there to keep his memory alive. A family that has managed not to argue over the question of inheritance. Mischa Aznavour, his son born from the singer’s union with the Swede Ulla Thorsell, spoke about this in the pages of the magazine Gala in 2023.
Charles Aznavour, married three times, founded a large family of five children. From his union in 1946 with Micheline Rugel Fromentin, he had a daughter, Patricia, known as Seda in 1947. From an extramarital relationship with a cabaret dancer, Arlette Bordais, Patrick Bordais was born in 1951, whom he recognized at nine years old. later – he died at age 25. On October 28, 1955, he married Evelyn Plessis with whom he had no children. From his union on January 11, 1967, with the Swedish Ulla Thorsell, Katia was born in 1969, Mischa in 1971 and finally Nicolas in 1977.
In GalaMischa Aznavour then explained that he had not been appointed to manage the heritage, particularly artistic: “Everything is decided together. Nicolas receives requests of all kinds. I do a lot of public relations, interviews, because I’m the least shy. And Katia and her husband are involved in the film project about my father. With my mother, I met Tahar Rahim, who will play him in this biopic, because he wanted to know more about him.(…) We discuss what is necessary and we work in harmony so that the projects do not interfere with each other.”
The Aznavour family had to manage the star’s properties after his death and in particular the property in Mouriès, in Provence, which was sold: “It was almost thirty years of my father’s life but it’s not a place we knew too much. At the same time, I would have kept Mouriès to build the Aznavour museum. Because Yerevan is a bit like Johnny’s grave in Saint-Barth: it’s too far for the fans.”
Charles Aznavour’s legacy settled peacefully, unlike Johnny Hallyday and Alain Delon
The difference between his family and those of other legends – Johnny Hallyday and Alain Delon, about whom a lot of ink is spilled when it comes to inheritance – perhaps lies in the fact that the delicate questions were settled in advance : “My father had organized everything before he left. He wanted us to have no worries. To give you an idea, we had a forest in Montfort-l’Amaury, which I loved. I wanted him to leave it to me but he wouldn’t hear anything. He said: ‘It’s not buildable, I’m going to sell it, you’re not going to know what to do with it…‘”Charles Aznavour had a voice, certainly, but also a lot of flair…
