It’s surely one of the worst trials you can go through in your life. In 2013, Maïté lost her only son Serge after a long battle with cancer. He was only 52 years old. A tragedy for the cook which completely turned her life upside down. Father of two daughters, Perrine and Camille, Serge left behind his children who were pampered by their grandmother but also by their grandfather Jean-Pierre Ordonez.
We were slow to have children
“My husband and I were slow to have children. I didn’t have time to take care of my son. It’s easier to be a grandmother, we’re freer“, she confided to Mireille Dumas in 2008, “Everyone is in Rion, everyone wants to get together. We don’t talk much, but when there’s a problem everyone is there“. Living in Rion-des-Landes, Maïté subsequently decided to abandon TV shows – she hosted culinary shows like The Kitchen of the Musketeers et At the table – to devote himself exclusively to the education of his granddaughters.
Maïté marked by the death of her son Serge
Son restaurant At Maïté was also placed in compulsory liquidation before closing its doors definitively in 2015. A few years later in 2020, Maïté also lost the love of her life Jean-Pierre, nicknamed Pierrot, who died at the age of 84 on September 9, 2020. They had been married since 1958.
“This media side has passed him by. She chose to retire and live peacefully“, confided her granddaughter Camille in the show It starts today in 2022. In June 2023, the site News Landes had revealed that the famous cook was suffering from a neurodegenerative disease and admitted to a nursing home in her hometown (she was also the mascot of the establishment). On December 21, 2024, Maïté left, joining her son Serge and her husband Jean-Pierre. She was 86 years old.
Maïté was much more than a grandmother
“Today, it is with immense sadness that I speak to say goodbye to our grandmother. To tell you about Maïté, but not about the grandmother known to everyone: about our grandmother, the only one in the world. Maïté was much more than a grandmother, she was my example, a force of inspiration. She had this light within her, this mixture of gentleness and strength. We always felt safe by his side“, declared one of his granddaughters on the day of his funeral according to South West.
