Charles Aznavour: How did his heirs distribute his immense fortune of 145 million euros?

Charles Aznavour: How did his heirs distribute his immense fortune of 145 million euros?

It has already been six years since Charles Aznavour left the stage for good. On October 1, 2018, in Mouriès, a commune in the Alpilles located south of Avignon, the singer was found inert in his bathroom. The autopsy concluded that there was a cardiovascular problem.

Nothing suggested such a sudden disappearance. The day before, the interpreter of My Bohemiaaged 94, had a tea accompanied by a slice of tropézienne with Michel Leeb. The day before, he had lunch with Jean-Paul Belmondo. He had just arrived from a stay at the Japan where he performed in two concertsin Tokyo and Osaka.

In a similar situation, some, seeing themselves already becoming a hundred years old, like Pierre Cardin, preferred not to think about the future, causing inextricable inheritance problems when they died. Others, like Johnny Hallyday, had time to consider the question, but in this case, the rocker’s last wishes had triggered a terrible inheritance war that it took years to resolve. None of that at the Aznavours, where complicated family situation could, however, have caused many battles.

Charles Aznavour had planned everything for his legacy

Charles Aznavour had three wives in his life. “The first time, I was too young. The second time, I was too stupid. The third time, I married a woman who came from a different, stricter culture. I learned things, the tolerance, in particular. […] She regulated me, put me on the right track.”he confided to 7 Days TV. At 22, the star married Micheline Ruguel Formentin, with whom he had two children : Seda, now 77 years old, and Charles, 72 years old. In 1955, he then fell in love with Evelyn Plessis, whom he married soon after. Together they had a son, Patrick, who tragically died of an overdose at age 25. Finally, in 1967, Aznavour married Ulla Thorsell, a Swedish woman with whom he would live until the end of his life. They had three children: Katia, now 56 years old, Mischa, 54 years old, and Nicolas, 48 ​​years old.

Three women, five children: families are torn apart for less… But although his form was insolent considering his advanced age, the great Charles was a far-sighted man. Coming from a particularly modest family, despite sometimes unexpected expenses, he took care to manage the earnings he had amassed during his 70-year career as a good father!

And there were gains. In October 2011, while performing at l’Olympiasome found the price of tickets, between 75 and 200 euros, a little too high. He explained it in The Parisian : “I can come on stage with just one pianist, but there I have a lot of musicians. Everything is increasing. France would like everything to be free. Well no! People don’t work for free, neither do artists. And it’s not true that they make fortunes.”

Not all artists, in fact, make fortunes, to use his expression. Him, yes. One figure summed it up, often repeated and never denied: 145 million euros! A phenomenal amount that the artist, for a long time at the top of the poster, had cleverly placed…

Charles Aznavour did not want family quarrels

A few months before his death, an investigation carried out jointly by Mediapart and the Belgian daily The evening had shed new light on the singer’s finances, and on his way of managing them. Our colleagues explained in particular that a decade before his disappearance, in 2007 exactly, Aznavour had transferred two French companies managing its copyright to a new company based in Luxembourg and called Abricot SA, of which he was the sole shareholder. The operation, perfectly legal, had the advantage of escaping the French tax authorities, with whom he had had a chaotic relationship in the past. Knowing that at the same time, he resided in Switzerland, his income benefited from very favorable tax conditions.

In 2016, everything changes… Through a capital increase, Apricot becomes a co-ownership. The lucky beneficiaries are Charles Aznavour, of course, but also his wife, Ulla, and two of his children, the eldest, This is Aznavour71 years old, and the youngest, Nicolas41 years old. This operation now makes part of the singing legend’s family eligible for the profits of his company. And it already facilitates the succession which will take place within the framework of Luxembourg law.

Charles Aznavour had been thinking about this succession for a long time. Claiming to have “all set up”he opened up about it in September 2018, a few weeks before his death on the show Seven to Eight : “It’s been thirty years since I made my will, he explained. I don’t want us to fight over a spoon or a forkit’s ridiculous and this is what often happens. “ During the same interview, he said: “What will remain is what will remain. I would like a lot of it to remain, because it will be a royalties for my grandchildren.”

His wish was obviously granted… He did not leave his heirs destitute. If it is now his son Nicolas who co-manages the cultural and financial heritage with Katia, Mischa and their half-sister Seda, everyone has been able to receive their due. In April 2023, Mischa confirmed it in the pages of Gala. “Everything is decided together, he confided about the artistic heritage. 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.” (N.D.L.R. : Mr Aznavourscheduled for release on October 23). In this same interview, Mischa, who is the son who most resembles him, confirmed that his father had “everything organized before his departure. He didn’t want us to have any worries.” And the son cites as an example a forest, near Montfort-l’Amaury, which his father owned and which he would have liked to enjoy. There was no question of it. The patriarch had decided: “I’m going to sell it!”

Mischa, Aznavour’s son: “I can do what I like but I don’t flare up“

A little later in this exchange, Mischa conceded that thanks to his father, money was not a problem. “I can do what I like, invite my friends, go to a restaurant without thinking. But I don’t take first class flights either.I don’t flare up. My father was like that…”

A year later, last May, Gala gave the floor to another child of the star: Nicolas. Based in Armenia with his wife Kristina. There he manages the Aznavour Foundation dedicated to cultural and humanitarian actions. He also confirms that their father had planned everything: “My father had organized his estate well. He had also ‘brainwashed’ us since childhood that family was important, that we had to stay united, that we got along.”

Nicolas underlines the harmony that reigns within the clan: “He treated all his children the same way, he never put us in competition, never made comparisons.” A rule of life which undoubtedly guided his choices when preparing a succession which was made in unity, respect and peace, as many values ​​as Aznavour used to defend on a daily basis.