Every time Maripier Morin shows signs of life for four years, journalists cannot help but talk about it as his “great comeback”. The host and actress has a little fun with this grandiloquence. Certainly, she experienced a journey through the desert in the wake of the #metoo movement. But to really “get back into the spotlight”, you really have to have left them.
Published at 7:00 a.m.
In the last four years, Maripier Morin has, among other things, been at the helm of a podcast show and a radio show. We were also able to see her on TV in one of the most popular series on the small screen, and in the cinema, in a leading role. She also launched Mox, an alcohol-free ready-to-drink brand. In short, let’s say that there are worse down times.
“There were two really rough years. I have made my way of the cross. I got up after reaching the bottom. I changed, and I think people saw that. Are there people who are still uncomfortable working with me? Maybe, and I respect that. But sincerely, I don’t feel it,” recalls the host, who has made an act of contrition on numerous occasions since 2020, always with a skillful concern not to pose as a martyr to the culture of boycott.
Closing the loop
It would therefore be a bit pompous to write that Maripier Morin is making a comeback. The fact remains that this fall undoubtedly officially marks the end of her purgatory in the mainstream media, which was still hesitant to associate with her again. On the radio, Cogeco drafted her to co-host the Lunch girls with Marie-Eve Janvier on Rythme. On TV, Bell entrusted him with hostingOD: Temptations in the sun, a new reality show with former participants ofOccupation double which will be on Crave on December 2.
I had zero hesitation before saying yes. It’s weird, because my whole career I’ve tried to distance myself from reality TV. But coming back to it in this way, I found that it came full circle.
Maripier Morin
“I really saw myself as a big sister to the candidates,” observes the one who approaches her role as facilitator with great kindness.
“I laugh with them, not at them. These are all people who have already done OD, so they know the game. They don’t take themselves seriously. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable attending a stupid dinner. I don’t like seeing a reality show where we make fun of a candidate without them knowing it,” adds with a certain wisdom Maripier Morin, who returned a month ago from Mexico, where all the filming was completed. in about ten days.
The new Maripier
At 38, Maripier Morin no longer has much to do with the young, party-loving, bad-tempered woman that Quebecers discovered in Occupation double in 2006, and which still characterized her in her early days as a presenter. The one who is preparing to pass the milestone of five years of sobriety has found peace far from the distractions of the big city, in Granby, where she lives with her partner, the actor Jean-Philippe Perras, and their two young children.
She also draws this zenitude from her spirituality, which she reaffirmed within the fraternities of alcoholics and narcotics anonymous.
Maripier has always had faith, coming from a family of Italian ancestry, on her father’s side, who was very Catholic. One of his uncles is also a priest. In a secular Quebec where everything related to the sacred is reprobated, she knows that speaking openly about it places her on a slippery slope.
“As soon as we talk about God, people think we are crazy. But we must understand that spirituality is something that goes far beyond the dogma of a religion. It is to marvel at the beauty of nature, at the simplicity of life. It’s helping me a lot at the moment to get through the loss of my brother,” she confides, taking great care not to indulge in proselytism.
Survive
On July 9, two days after Maripier Morin’s birthday and three days after her delivery, her brother Raphaël, to whom she was very close, ended his life. When she discusses her death in an interview, Maripier Morin bursts into tears. The birth of his son, his second child, will for a time fill the immense void that his brother leaves. But her tragic departure catches up with her these days.
“It didn’t make me want to relapse, though. On the contrary, I tell myself that it is because of that that my brother died,” she explains, after wiping away her tears.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Maripier Morin
It just reinforced my fear of substances. And when you have the insidious disease of addiction, it’s important to always be afraid. The danger that awaits us is precisely feeling too confident. This is where we risk diving back.
Maripier Morin
Raphael was inhabited by the same demons as her. Several times, Maripier Morin tried to reach out to him to help him get through it, in vain. The pain is acute at the idea of not having succeeded in saving him.
“Our men are not doing well. We talk a lot about domestic violence, femicide, and that’s perfect. But behind it, there are men who are suffering. If we don’t take care of them, it won’t stop. They will continue to harm others and harm themselves,” she says, her throat tight, overcome with a great feeling of helplessness.
OD: Temptations in the sunur Crave from December 2
