Claude Lelouch and his wife Valérie Perrin without taboo on their age difference: “30 years is a lot”

The 87-year-old filmmaker has shared his life with Valérie Perrin, 30 years his junior, for 18 years now. In the columns of Parisianthis Tuesday, November 12, 2024, Claude Lelouch and his wife confide in their love and without any taboo, the couple embraces their big age difference, by telling the story of their meeting. The lovebirds met in 2006 at the inauguration of Place Claude-Lelouch in Deauville. For the occasion, a journalist friend of Valérie Perrin gives a letter to the director. “I wrote this text at the request of this friend, who worked for a Norman monthly magazine. It was an open letter to Claude's cinema, which I admire”, she reveals. Claude Lelouch falls under the spell of the words written by the novelist, he admits: “I said to myself: 'There is someone who saw in my films what I thought I was the only one to have seen'.”

Three months later, they see each other at Deauville station and talk for hours. “At that time, we weren't into seduction. Thirty years apart is a lot: I was 39, Claude 69”, she explains. But the admiration they have for each other is undeniable, they see each other again in Paris, eight days later and they “had an incredible evening”, assures Valérie Perrin. Before confiding: “Afterwards, everything happened very quickly. We were so good together, there was no time to lose.” The filmmaker adds in turn: “We wanted to talk about everything, it was wonderful.” For him, their “love story was built on admiration”. He even insists: “In love, there is the love of bodies, which lasts a short time, but what is important is admiration.”

>> Claude Lelouch: who are the women in his life?

“We are faithful until we find something better”, the surprising secret of a relationship that lasts for Claude Lelouch

On France Interthis Monday, November 11, the filmmaker spoke about love and infidelity. Faced with him, Léa Salamé told him, bluntly: “When you're bored, you leave or you mess up. Loyalty has never been your thing!” Without denying the journalist’s statement, Claude Lelouch said: “We are faithful until we find something better.” He is aware of this, and added: “It's terrible to say, but it lifts us up. It forces us to improve.“Because, for him,”A love story is never something taken for granted.“For a relationship to work and last over time, Claude Lelouch said: “Every day, we have to break new records. You have to get better and better.”

Article written with the collaboration of 6Médias.

Photo credits: RACHID BELLAK / BESTIMAGE