Once accomplices, always accomplices! Very fit on the set of the 20th anniversary show broadcast this Friday, Barbara Louys and Thomas Van Hamme, the tandem from the first years, were happily reunited. Thomas returned specially from Spain to join his “half”: for several months, he has been living in Cadiz, where he organizes retreats focused on meditation and yoga. “How can we forget what we experienced?” he asks himself. “It was a lot of laughter and we were deeply happy.” In the space of a few years, the host saw his life completely turned upside down. “Just yesterday, my existence seemed perfect. It corresponded point by point to the criteria for success displayed in our world: beauty, notoriety, power and money. A life of glossy paper that I had built for myself to fill the gap terrible lack which inhabited me, which I suspected but of which I was not aware, to hide from the eyes of others vast gray areas which I accommodated as best I could.he explained during the presentation of his book “L’Éveil”.
This work, in which he explains why he abandoned the career that he spent years building and which reached its peak with “C’est du Belge”, was an enormous success. “This need for fame, to be recognized, for “permanent validation from others”, as he calls it, actually hid deep wounds”explained journalist Pierre-Yves Paque. “Among these, a rape suffered at the age of 13. A rape which ruined his life and any feeling of self-confidence he had. It was precisely shamanic sessions which allowed him to dive into the depths of himself and bring to the surface this drama buried in his memory, which he had ended up hiding.”
Last Tuesday, Thomas Van Hamme received a Lobby Award for his literary confession. Today, after having left everything behind (job, family, friends and even love), he leads a new life near Seville, finally peaceful. He is currently writing a second work, not a sequel, rather a novel. Of the “It’s Belgian” experience, he says again: “It was a lot of good times with a happy team.” But he adds: “I now see all this with great tenderness. Especially this boy, Thomas Van Hamme, who is no longer me.”
A return to television for Barbara Louys?
Different atmosphere with Barbara Louys, who has lost none of her explosive temperament, even though she left the media world ten years ago. “I still work hard in the jewelry sector”she says. “My store (located rue de Namur 93 in Brussels, near the royal palace) works wonderfully and satisfies me. I have created several collections which have done very well.” But the ex-host doesn’t hide it: she and TV aren’t over yet. And she might even come back sooner than expected. “Being 50 allows us to take stock. My son is now 21 and I am once again at a crossroads in my life. For me, it has always been punctuated by ten-year cycles. Why not a return to the world of TV? What I experienced with “C’est du Belge” is unforgettable, my clients always talk to me about it with adorable words. So yes, I miss TV and I have projects.”
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As a reminder, it was she who, twenty years ago, had the idea of creating “C’est du Belge”. “The times have changed and creativity is more essential than ever. We were part of a golden age where everything was possible but, tomorrow, good programs will still work. And then, I met so many personalities thanks to the show! An address book like mine is an inexhaustible source of ideas.” Jumbled together, she cites “the inspiring Édouard Vermeulen”, “the touching Delphine Boël”, “the very committed and daring Princess Esmeralda”… She also keeps Thomas Van Hamme in a part of her heart. “He made me laugh until I cried because he was even worse than me: he always worried about whether he was doing well on the air! This generated countless laughs between us. I remember that by the way of a “C’est du Belge” cruise, where he, his boyfriend and I told each other our love stories while eating sweets, snuggled up in our pajamas in a big bed!”
