“These are wounds that don’t go away”, the host looks back on the tragic death of his eldest son

Known by all for having animated The Largest Cabaret in the World et The happy yearsPatrick Sébastien nevertheless had a difficult life journey, very different from the joyful shows he presented. After a complicated childhood, he had four children, the eldest of whom, Sébastien, died in a tragic road accident. For the host, this pain will never disappear, even if it has been almost 34 years since he had to say goodbye to it.

Patrick Sébastien recounts the day he learned of the death of his eldest son

In his book entitled Nostalgia (published by XO) published in 2023, Patrick Sébastien looked back on the day he learned of the death of his eldest son, Sébastien. The latter died at the age of 19 in a motorcycle accident on the roads of Camargue. That day, a relative called the host, and that's how he learned of the death of his son, who was then going to become a father.

“Hello… Sébastien probably had an accident. But we're not sure it's him. We haven't found his papers. — So what? A long silence. — So if it's him, he is dead”he writes in this book. “And here we are side by side at the church to carry it into the ground. This seed that we had dreamed of was an oak tree, cut down in full growth”he adds on the following lines. A tragedy from which Patrick Sébastien never really recovered, even if he tried to maintain his humor despite the grief and mourning. “So, I drew on my most hidden strengths to brighten up the worst of the worst“, he says in Nostalgia.

Patrick Sébastien, forever marked by the death of his son

More recently, in the show Entre vous et moi presented by Dominique Lagrou-Sempère, available on YouTube, Patrick Sébastien made other confidences about this drama. “I lost my son. I hugged him, he left on a motorbike, he killed himself an hour later”regretted the host, who did not suspect for a single moment that he would never see him again. “It had to happen. I might have squeezed it thirty seconds longer or thirty seconds shorter… But no, it was written like that”he added.

Patrick Sébastien then spoke about the guilt that never leaves him. “I'm friends with people who have had their children murdered. Or worse, children who have committed suicide. That's terrible because you have your guilt. […] I have the guilt anyway”he said. “The real ambition that I will perhaps never be able to achieve is to spend a single day without thinking about the death of my son”explained the former host of the Largest Cabaret in the World. “It’s life, it’s like that. It had to happen but on the other hand, these are wounds that don’t go away”he admitted.