The Gonzalez family reveals their daily life in the show Large families, life in XXL for 4 years now. Are the film crews present all the time? Does the family have a say in the images? Mélanie Gonzalez explains everything on the microphone of Parents Firstthe podcast of Télé-Loisirs.
The show Large families, life in XXL has been broadcast on TF1 since 2020. Among the families who participate in the program, some stand out, like the Gonzalezes who have opened the doors of their daily lives to the cameras for four years now. But filming a family of nine children is not an easy task because nothing is predictable, especially with young children, as Mélanie Gonzalez explains in the podcast. Parents First of Tele-Leisure : “They adapt because with children there are always hazards.“She also specifies:”Large Families is not a reality TV, but a docu-reality.“An important distinction, because nothing is scripted: the reactions and behaviors of the participants are entirely natural and authentic.
“They offered to delete the images“: Mélanie Gonzalez reveals the reaction of the show's production when she lost her twins
A little over a year ago, Franck and Mélanie Gonzalez experienced difficult ordeals. While they were trying to have a 9th child, the mother suffered four successive miscarriages as she recounts with emotion in her book My children, my stars: Joys and sorrows of a mother (not) like the others (Ed. Leduc). When Mélanie announced to her children that she was pregnant, the TF1 cameras were present. She confides: “IThey experienced the announcement of my 9th pregnancy, which then stopped. The journalist was really happy for us and totally upset when I told them my pregnancy had ended. They also offered to delete the images. With Franck, we said to ourselves: 'We share our daily lives, and this ordeal is part of it, so let's leave it.'”
Large families, life in XXL : Families inform production of what will happen at home in the coming weeks
How does production know when to come and film with families? “She calls us a few weeks in advance and asks us what events are planned at our house: birthdays, a baptism, a diploma… We make them a list, and they select the sequences that may interest them. It is then up to us to decide whether or not we accept that they come to film.“ Unpaid for their participation, families thus retain the freedom to choose what they wish to show to viewers.
