“He lived in a state of physical disintegration”: a writer recounts his last interview with Ari Boulogne

You met Ari Boulogne on June 9, 2022, in what context did this interview take place?

As I had been working for several years on a biography of Alain Delon (Alain Delon, une vie aux aguets, Edition l’Archipel NDLR), I wanted to meet Ari Boulogne. I made the request to his lawyer, Maître Fleury. While he had refused several interviews for years, he agreed to see me. On June 9, 2022, I went to the apartment he occupied rue Cambronne in the 15th arrondissement in Paris. I was very kindly welcomed by his companion Yasmina Saïdi with whom I had scheduled the meeting. It was she who, in a way, acted as interpreter during our interview with Ari Boulogne.

What do you mean ?

I found Ari Boulogne in a state of disrepair, destitution, astonishing physical disintegration. I did not expect that.

How is it possible ?

Over the past fifteen years, he had had two absolutely destructive strokes. We know that for more than thirty years he had been drugged and had undergone several detoxification treatments. Now he was hemiplegic. He met us sitting down in an armchair, he was completely twisted, he could barely hold his cigarette.

What environment did he live in?

He didn’t own anything in this little one-bedroom apartment. I was shocked by the terrible state of destitution. I wondered how people could live like that without anyone taking care of them, neither from the point of view of Ari Boulogne’s family (he had two children), nor from social services. Coming out of this meeting, I was crushed by what I had seen. it raises questions about the people who have denied Ari’s existence.

What role did his companion Yasmina Saïdi play, placed in police custody?

I cannot express myself on the reasons for the police custody. I can only say that she took wonderful care of Ari, she was very attentive to her.

Ari has always claimed to be the son of Alain Delon. How did he feel about this one?

I asked him the following question, “if you were face to face with Alain Delon tomorrow, what would you say to him?”. He replied, “I would tell him, why don’t you want to talk to me? Why did you let all this happen? They took me away from my mother, the most important person in my life, to then reject me… I don’t understand”.

When he says “they”, who is he referring to?

To Alain Delon’s mother, his grandmother Edith, to her husband, Paul Boulogne, who later adopted him and gave him his name. In fact, his anger was most intense towards his grandmother. He was angry with her because he felt that she had separated him from his mother, the singer Nico, whom she did not love, to raise him in the cult of Alain Delon. She often said to him “Alain Delon will pick you up one day”. There is a striking anecdote. Small, he slept in the room of Alain Delon, child and teenager. She had put a photo of Alain Delon on the bedside table for him, he never had a photo of his mother.

His mother whom he adored.

As he got older, he obsessed over her. He adored her, he couldn’t admit that his mother had been driven out of his life. In addition, he suffered that she was called a liar when she had always told him that Alain Delon was his father.

Alain Delon has never really been clear with Ari.

We understood Alain Delon did not want this child. From there to think that the mother of the child lied brazenly … In addition, one can wonder why the mother of Alain Delon would have wanted to collect a child who was foreign to him. In this case, we can speak of denial. Ari never understood this attitude. When I questioned him, he told me “if he has any doubts, why has he always refused to take a DNA test? The case would have been settled in a few days. But no, he always fled by all means.”

Delon and Ari had an exchange once. The conversation is terrifying.

All he found to say to him in the space of twenty minutes was that he was not his son, that he did not have his eyes, not his features, that he did not didn’t look like. He went so far as to tell him: “I only slept with your mother once, so you have to understand, we can be friends, you are my friend, but I am not your father, put- you that in the head, I am not your father”.

Anthony Delon paid tribute to Ari on social media. How do you interpret it?

It doesn’t surprise me from Anthony, it’s very elegant and it says a lot about this paternity affair. it compensates for the comment by Alain Delon’s lawyer, which is distressing.

And you, what is your conviction, is Ari the son of Alain Delon?

When you know all the elements, I don’t see where the doubt is. Even if this paternity has not been proven and will never be proven. Two elements are essential: the mother of Alain Delon has decided to have Ari adopted by her husband. Moreover, when began to take care of the child, Alain Delon was so furious that he did not speak to his mother for seventeen years. The second element expressed by Ari during our interview: if there were so many certainties in Alain Delon, why not have delivered a DNA test which would have settled everything.

Interview by Olivier Biscaye