A year after the death of her friend Jane Birkin, former photographer Gabrielle Crawford published a book entitled It’s Jane, Birkin Jane in which she tells about her sister at heart, her confidante for almost sixty years. Interviewed by our colleagues from Paris Matchthe one Jane Birkin nicknamed the angel Gabrielle remembers her in all her facets. The mother (of Kate Berry, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon), the artist, the wife, the lover… Jane Birkin married the composer John Barry in 1965 before living a passionate love affair with Serge Gainsbourg which lasted more than ten years, from 1968 to 1980, when she left him for director Jacques Doillon. Between 1995 and 2000, she was in a relationship with the author Olivier Rolin, her last known relationship. Her friend Gabrielle Crawford goes into more detail about the couple she formed with Charlotte Gainsbourg’s father.
“He discovered that Jane could exist without him“: Jane Birkin’s friend reveals the secrets of her relationship with Serge Gainsbourg
“Jane was demanding in love. She needed to admire in order to love. They were a challenge for her. Music, cinema, literature. All her life, Jane wanted to learn and progress“, confided Gabrielle Crawford about her lifelong friend. “Jane Birkin cheated on Serge Gainsbourg with Jacques Doillon, at the end of their story, but, otherwise, she was faithful in love“, say our colleagues from Paris Match. “Their relationship was falling apart. Serge drank too much and discovered that Jane could exist without him. We imagine a lot of false things about Jane. She was faithful and she never took drugs. All in all, she must have smoked a few joints. Jane didn’t need any drugs to love life. She was, on the other hand, subscribed to sleeping pills. I’ve never seen anyone take so many sleeping pills and not be able to sleep. She distributed them generously at the end of meals“, she remembers.
“Serge flowed through his veins until the end“: Jane Birkin’s friend, Gabrielle Crawford, talks about the actress’s passions
On March 2, 1991, eleven years after leaving him, Jane Birkin lost the man who will probably remain the man of her life. Serge Gainsbourg died of a heart attack at the age of 62, five days before the death of David Birkin, Jane’s father. “On the death of Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Doillon tells you: ‘It’s the beginning of the end for me’, our colleagues point out a little later in the interview about the trio that Jane Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg and Jacques Doillon formed in spite of themselves.Jane had a passionate love affair with Jacques Doillon, but Serge flowed through his veins until the end“, confirmed and concluded Gabrielle Crawford, the British beauty’s lifelong friend.
