At 65, Caroline Paulus, her real name, decided to tell her life story in an autobiography, entitled Step by step in the nightpublished by XO éditions. The one we nicknamed Bambou was the former partner of Serge Gainsbourg. Invited on the airwaves of France Inter, she looked back on her childhood which she describes as “not easy”.
“Very early on, I didn't know what I was doing there. I didn't understand what was happening. I knew that I was not like everyone else, not like the other children, that the people who were there were not like my parents. That they were bad”, confides the guest in front of Léa Salamé, who will share her fear in the face of the author's writings.
Bambou's terrible childhood shocks Léa Salamé head-on
Indeed, the France Inter journalist will be touched to the heart by the hell experienced during Bambou's childhood. “So, 'I didn't have an easy childhood' is an understatement. When we read your book, Bambou, what a childhood! What hardness, what suffering!”
Placed in public assistance, she remained alone all day, from the age of one. She will subsequently be placed with a foster family, already made up of two girls.
“You will be Cosette. When your adoptive mother sees you, she will tell you, 'Hey, here's the package' (…) Atrocious family, you're going to live through hell with them. They will mistreat you, deprive you of food, beat you, make you swallow your vomit when you vomit, at six years old, your Christmas present is a swift”.
A martinet as a gift for his sixth birthday
Comments confirmed by Bambou: “Yes, the only gift I have had in 13 years…”. “It’s a swift to hit you better”relaunches Léa Salamé who remains speechless.
It was at the age of eight that Caroline Paulus found her biological mother. “It’s freezing, she doesn’t behave like a mother. I remained petrified. Out of six children, five girls and one boy, she only liked two girls because they were the prettiest. I wasn't. I later learned that they came to see them regularly. I also discovered later that she didn't like my father and that their children were unwanted…”she confides to
Parisian.
