The journalist entrusted himself at length to Audrey Crespo-Mara in the portrait of “seven to eight” week, broadcast this Sunday on TF1.
It is a testimony that is both overwhelming and optimistic. An ode to life despite the trials. Charles Biétry, 81, lost speech following the progression of Charcot's disease. The sports journalist confides at Audrey Crespo-Mara for a long time in the portrait of the week broadcast this Sunday in the program “Sept à Huit”, on TF1. For the purposes of the interview, he wrote his answers and artificial intelligence recreated his voice, the one that made us vibrate when he commented on football matches or boxing fights. A moment of rare emotion.
“It's a torture. The words are in my head and I can't get them out. So we curl up and we may no longer have contact with the outside, ”he explains at the start of the interview. Affected by Charcot's disease for many years, but diagnosed only in 2022, Charles Biétry was fighting a real fight. He can no longer speak, eat hard, but keep walking, cycling and especially laughing. “I am alive. Alive. I have a few weeks or months left to live. Why do you want me to spoil them and spoil the life of my loved ones? I want to take advantage of it and do everything in my power to help research and other patients. We have a sentence that has become mythical in the family: “We will laugh to the end.” And it works. »»
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“I hate defeat”
The legendary owner of Canal+ sports releases his autobiography, “last wave” (Flammarion). “I am at war, Audrey. I am at war with the disease. Sport helps me every day to hate defeat. I know I'm going to lose one day. But for those around me, for JB, my physiotherapist, for the other patients, I have to fight. And then, the Bretons, it's true, are a people who never abandon, ”he says.
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-Breton highlights the role of his family, who supports him. “They are incredible. They could have cried, they could have shown me pity, change their behavior and I would have constantly seen my illness in their eyes. On the contrary, everyone, from the grandmother to Elisa and her 8 years, continues to live, laugh, to play. »»
“Going to commit suicide in Switzerland is not the dream of my end of life”
His strength to live is a model and Charles Biétry also wants to pass a message: that of dying in dignity. “It's already hard to die, but then, to die, it's the double penalty. Suffering at the bottom of a hospital bed, stifled, no longer having the slightest exchange with those you love, and which are difficult to see you hope for death, knowing that there is no Exit, it's hard. And when we hear, on the TV sets, those who campaign against us, who want to go into dignity, or simply choose freely, is abject. A law would give serenity in freedom. The dissolution rejected the vote of a law. So the journalist announces having registered on a waiting list in a clinic in Switzerland for assisted suicide. “Going to commit suicide in Switzerland is not the dream of my end of life. The trip by car, with my wife and my two children, and know that they will return to France all three with the funeral urn in the trunk … the more I think about it, the less I want. »»
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At the end of this testimony of rare intensity, Charles Biétry wants to be a philosopher. “We all know that the end is inevitable and that sorrow will invade those who remain. We have time to cry. In the meantime, let's live every moment. A real lesson in life.
