When Johnny Hallyday announced that he had cancer, the rock star’s fans and loved ones were far from imagining the worst. The much-feared outcome arrived on December 5, 2017. It was with poignant words that Laeticia Hallyday, the mother of his daughters Jade and Joy, announced the death of her husband, her pillar, the one she will never forget.
On December 9, four days after the Death of Johnny Hallydaya national tribute was paid to the idol of young people in the grounds of the Madeleine church in the heart of Paris. It was on this occasion that the rocker’s children, namely Laura Smet, David Hallyday, Jade and Joy were gathered together as rarely. Another notable presence: that of Nathalie Baye and Sylvie Vartan, mother of the two eldest.
Water had flowed under the bridge since their separation from Johnny, which is why Sylvie Vartan and Nathalie Baye wanted to be present to salute one last time the memory of the singer and the father of their children. Despite everything, the pain was palpable and the ordeal particularly difficult. It is not Sylvie Vartan who will say the opposite, she who bordered on uneasiness when leaving the church.
Sylvie Vartan on the verge of fainting after leaving La Madeleine
As the composer Jean-Jacques Debout, husband of Chantal Goya with whom he shares a separate room, said, present on that sad day of December 9, 2017, Sylvie Vartan was not in the best of shape.At the end of her farewell mass, Sylvie asked me to hold her arm to leave the Madeleine, as she was so afraid of fainting.” he said during the interview given to France Sunday, released on June 28. Present for Sylvie Vartan, Jean-Jacques Debout also had to manage his own mourning.
Jean-Jacques Debout and Johnny Hallyday have forged a true friendship over the years. Chantal Goya’s husband took a long time to accept the rocker’s death. It was only by going into exile in Indre, where he grew up and where he now owns a house, that Jean-Jacques Debout was able to accept his departure. On D-Day, Jean-Jacques Debout was in the grip of despair: “As we went down the steps of the church, I saw the book of our meeting, of our beginnings, of our youth, of beautiful years closing. I saw the word end being written, which was a terrible blow to me, it devastated me.“
