“I have the instinct of a lioness, you must not touch a hair of my tribe”

Listening to her, Faustine Bollaert would have liked to have a gaggle of children. “Why not eighteen?” » she jokes. In the end, she only has two, Abbie, 11, and Peter, 9. But when she is at home, in Saint-Cast-le-Guildo, she welcomes everyone in the area. The house is then transformed into a large playroom: shopping upstairs, console in the basement, playhouses in the kitchen cupboards. “I love it when they make noise. I only dreamed of that, to have a house where the children would feel good, where there would be lots of friends, where you would enter without knocking. »

Usually, she spends the end of year holidays under the palm trees. The vacation in the sun will wait until February: she will join her older brother, Charles, in Miami, where he has been based for a long time. “Abbie and Peter love nothing more than being here anyway. They are freer there than anywhere else. There, I manage to let them walk alone without feeling anxious. » No need to go to the other side of the world, so Faustine found the keys to happiness in her Breton haven: laughter, pure air, blue skies – sometimes – and sausage pancakes, a culinary tradition of the region. These have the good taste of sweet memories. When, as a child, she accompanied her maternal grandfather to the market.

Faustine Bollaert with her gang. In pink, in purple and, behind, in black: Lorraine, Marine and Audrey, her childhood friends from Saint-Cast. In gray, her best friend, Fanny, and Cyril, her regular hairdresser and confidant since her beginnings at i-Télé. Standing: her cousin Lucile with her husband Thibault. January 2.

Paris Match / © Ilan Deutsch

Stéphane Bollaert, her maternal grandfather, was the first man in her life. Faustine idolized him so much that she took his last name

Stéphane Bollaert was the first man in her life. The one she idolized more than anyone, to the point of taking his last name. To her father's “Faraggi”, she first added “Bollaert” to her identity card, before only keeping this one to do television. Among other tributes to this ancestor, who died in 1997, who had settled the whole family in Saint-Cast-le-Guildo, she bought a house there. And not just any one, the one that made her dream when she was a child, overlooking the sea, with its gray stone turret.

Most of his cousins also have a pied-à-terre in the village. In the summer, they meet in the morning for coffee and in the evening for an aperitif. A permanent family reunion that “can impress the patches”. Her husband, the writer Maxime Chattam, confirms this: the first time he came to Saint-Cast, he was surprised to have to stop every 10 meters to greet this or that member of the clan.

Faustine Bollaert with her son Peter, 9 years old, always welcome for a hug.

Paris Match / © Ilan Deutsch

“I think kindness is ultimately a strength, because it can be disarming. »

Those around her are unanimous: Faustine Bollaert is an attentive friend who can always be counted on. In Brittany, she reunites with her faithful friends she met in the 1980s. At the time when they were making sandcastles at the beach club, like their children today. In the world of media, his friends can be counted on the fingers of one hand. She cites Julien Arnaud and Nikos Aliagas among the closest. The environment has the reputation of being a basket of crabs: so how does she, the eternal good guy, manage to survive there? “I think kindness is ultimately a strength, because it can be disarming. I always tell my children to be genuinely interested in people and that they will receive kindness in return. »

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She was still just a little girl and she already felt like a mother. Maybe because her parents divorced when she was only 5 years old. When Charles, her brother, then a high school student, became seriously ill after an anesthesia error, she took care of him until he recovered. “Even today, I am ultraprotective with him. He often tells me that I'm more his big sister than his little sister. In fact, I have lioness instincts. You must not touch a hair of my tribe. » A maternal fiber which has become as inseparable from her person as her smile.

Faustine Bollaert takes a reading break with Phoebe, her Cavalier King Charles. The 4-year-old dog owes her name to the character from “Friends”, of which her owner is an absolute fan.
Paris Match / © Ilan Deutsch
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In the street, people stop him to kiss him and often talk to him. “I feel that I am useful, but I sometimes have the impression of being invested with a mission that is beyond me”

Elected the French's favorite TV personality for the second year in a row, according to a “TV Magazine” survey, she assures that she is not “comfortable with the notion of ranking”, but receives this title as a “mark of affection of the public.” “When you do my job, you need to be loved by as many people as possible,” she admits. Certainly to fill a poorly experienced adolescence in a bourgeois school in the 16th arrondissement of Paris which did not resemble him. Not comfortable in her own skin, she imagined herself in that of someone else: “When I turned on the TV to watch Anne Sinclair, I had the impression that she was only speaking to me, that she was truly part of the family. » As a student, she met Jean-Luc Delarue, host and producer of “ça se discuss”, and adamantly told him that she would also present a testimonial program. “He must have pinched my cheek and said 'that one is cute', but I knew what I wanted to do. »

Faustine does not define herself as a careerist but as passionate. TV intravenously, she has never been discouraged by closed doors, poor ratings, aborted programs. In twenty years on the small screen, she has presented almost everything, from reality TV on TNT to consumer magazines on Channel 6. In 2017, France 2 finally offered her the show she was waiting for, “It starts today”. A success which has never been denied since. From Monday to Friday, for two hours at the beginning of the afternoon, she collects the life stories of anonymous people, often overwhelming but always full of hope. “I am a bringer of light. I am not here to keep it on me, but to direct it towards others. This show is a place of respectful listening and kindness. »

From the terrace of Faustine Bollaert's garden, a view of Saint-Cast-le Guildo which this TV figurehead never tires of.
Paris Match / © Ilan Deutsch

She said no to Emmanuel Macron but would like to interview Gisèle Pelicot

Her role as confidante does not cease when the cameras go off. In the street, people stop him to kiss him and often talk to him. Recently, at a restaurant, she had to dry the tears of a mother in the midst of perinatal mourning who only needed a few seconds to express herself. “I feel like I’m useful. It’s a chance to have a meaningful job. Even if I sometimes have the impression of being invested with a mission that is beyond me. People expect a solution from me that I can't necessarily give them. I don't always have as much time to give them as I would like. When I'm at the bakery, with Maxime and the children waiting for me in the car, and someone calls me to tell me a story about illness or something else, I don't have the same availability as on my set . I'm always afraid of disappointing. » Even Emmanuel Macron asked to lie down on the couch of the Paf's best psychologist, to justify his decision to dissolve the Assembly last June. But Faustine politely declined his proposal: “I know what my place is and I want to stay there,” she explained. On the other hand, I would love to be able to interview Gisèle Pelicot. »

One of his resolutions for 2025? Take a step back from this professional life which may have encroached on your personal life. “For the first time, I understand that I let myself be taken hostage by my passion. But I fought to get there, I love what I do, and my shows are so complementary that it would be difficult to give up one of them. » At the start of the year, she therefore made the decision to move closer to Paris, even though she lives near Chantilly, in Oise, and loses precious hours traveling every day. “It will allow me to have a new rhythm, to find time for my children, even if they have never criticized me for not being present enough. They see that my work is not a constraint but a source of fulfillment. » Peter even told him he wanted to be an animator too. He spends his days being filmed by his sister, Abbie, who aspires to become a director. Faustine sees herself in them again, she who, as a child, interviewed her brother with a tube of glue as a microphone.

Every Friday, Faustine Bollaert comes to stock up on sausage pancakes from Nathalie, at the Saint-Cast-le-Guildo market.
Paris Match / © Ilan Deutsch

“When I turned 40, there was a difficult shift to overcome, but now I am coping very well. I am at peace with the signs of age, which I believe tell our story. »

Notoriety has not succeeded in erasing all his complexes. “I’m still trying to come to terms with my body. I constantly monitor excess pounds and what I eat. I hope that one day it will no longer be a subject, but it's not easy when you're a woman of images. » On the other hand, the passage of time does not test him. “When I turned 40, there was a difficult shift to overcome, but now I am coping very well. I am at peace with the signs of age, which I believe tell our story. » However, a colleague assured her that it was difficult to see yourself aging in close-up. Faustine Bollaert doesn't know how many more years she will be on TV. “I'm definitely going to get tired of it. Or, on the contrary, viewers may want to grow old with me. »

No matter what the future holds for her, she knows that, in dead calms and in storms, she will always find her home port here, in Saint-Cast-le-Guildo. His dearest wish? May her children be as tied to this place as she is. This seems to be on the right track: next summer, Abbie and Peter can't imagine spending their vacation anywhere else.