As usual, Faustine Bollaert has more than one trick up her sleeve. This Friday, January 10, she returns with a new issue of The secret boxin the first part of the evening on France 3. After Théo Curin, Lara Fabian and Michel Fugain for the first broadcast of 2025, it is the turn of the singers Thomas Dutronc and Jérémy Frérot, as well as the announcer Denise Fabre to lend themselves to the exercise of the famous boxes. And it’s precisely the latter that gets the ball rolling. In the box located in front of his armchair, a mysterious sky blue blouse from the period, which seems to immediately bring back some memories for him.
Denise Fabre: this childhood injury that pushed her to start a family
A garment that Denise Fabre wore in her younger years, while she lived in a boarding school, as she explains to Faustine Bollaert. “I spent many years at boarding school. I went there very young, because my father abandoned my mother. They separated and I went to boarding school”says the announcer, now 82 years old. An experience which seems to have particularly affected her. “All you want to do is go out. You feel alone. Your friends in class, they have family lives, they have family meals, outings, they go to the cinema… They tell you everything the next day. You have nothing”she remembers. A very sad childhood which, it seems, made him want to start his own family more than ever, as host Faustine Bollaert recalls.
“I am happy to take over for the same 47-year lease” : Denise Fabre in tears after a tender declaration of love from her husband Francis Vandenhende
A blessing that takes its time to arrive. Because it was only at the age of 36 that Denise Fabre met Francis Vandenhende, the man who would become her husband for the next 47 years. “I met him on a radio station at Europe 1. He was Gaston Lenôtre’s right-hand man, because he is a great chef, that’s how we met, because Gaston had a column and I I was on Europe 1 in the morning”she remembers. As is often the case in the show, one box of secrets hides another. Faustine Bollaert has planned a second surprise for Denise Fabre: a touching message recorded by her husband. “My dear Denise, there are so many things to say… In a few weeks, we will celebrate our 47th wedding anniversary. […] We are all united this evening to tell you that you are a woman, a mother, a unique grandmother, and as we will not change you, I am happy to take over for the same 47-year lease.”declared Francis Vandenhende. Moved and with tears in her eyes, Denise Fabre reacts to this tender declaration. “It’s nice, adorable, it’s really… It’s true. From the moment the children arrived, nothing mattered but getting home.”
