Journalist Anne-Sophie Jahn is releasing a book this Thursday entitled “The Last Days of Johnny”. A new biography of the idol which focuses on recounting the last moments of the artist’s life.
In this book, Anne-Sophie Jahn recounts in detail the last months of Johnny Hallyday and his fight against cancer, until the last days, in the villa of Marnes-la-Coquette. Very weakened, he no longer eats and can only get around in a wheelchair. His office, which was entirely reconstructed for the exhibition dedicated to Taulier, was then converted into a medical room. A mattress is installed on the floor so that his wife Laeticia can sleep with him. It was in this room where he worked, where he listened to music and received his friends, that he lived his last hours on December 5, 2017.
In chapter XVI of this book which is published today by Grasset, Anne-Sophie Jahn recounts how Johnny asked his wife not to let Laura in the previous Saturday. How Laeticia also rejected David, a few hours before her father passed the gun to the left. And she talks about the whole night of her death. Who was present at La Savannah that day (Jean-François Piège and his wife, Grandma Rock, Hélène Darroze…) and who was in his room when Johnny closed his eyes for good.
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“Here, you will give it to my wife”
More surprising, moving from biographical story to fiction, she believes she knows what was going on in Johnny’s head: “ He has the feeling that the ground is vibrating (…) the applause rings in his ears (…) He sees the faces of his friends » (page 179).
In the room, Johnny is surrounded by his bodyguard and driver Karl and his coach “Dada”, she says. According to the author of the book, the idol would have lived her last minutes with them. Johnny seems absent, even unconscious: “ Karl and Dada gently lift him into his bed “, we can read on page 180, Johnny “ grab the cross in white gold and diamonds signed Harry Winston », representing a guitarist on a cross, and hands it to Dada: “ Here, you will give it to my wife » (Laeticia will carry it to the funeral). “ I feel like it’s the end, it’s good. “. Then he makes Karl promise to “ stay close to [sa] wife and children “. These are Johnny’s last words.
In the following pages, Anne-Sophie Jahn describes the following moments, the doctor’s vain gestures, Laeticia who collapses, the news which must be announced to loved ones and then to the press.
Johnny died on the night of December 5 to 6, 2017 in Marnes-la-Coquette. His funeral took place on the 9th in Paris.
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