French icons Deneuve and Hallyday ‘had secret lifelong affair’
HE WAS France’s Elvis, she remains the grande dame of French cinema but only now, three years after Johnny Hallyday’s death, aged 74, has an alleged lifelong romance with Catherine Deneuve been revealed to astonished fans.
A new biography of Hallyday claims the pair first became lovers as teenagers and their affair, conducted in secret trysts, carried on for years.
Hallyday was a hugely popular rocker of the 1960s who exerted an unshakeable hold over the French.
Deneuve (76), dubbed “the ice queen”, won a Bafta for 1967’s ‘Belle de Jour’ and has been nominated 31 times for a Cesar.
Both had chequered love lives. Deneuve had a son with Roger Vadim, was married to David Bailey and had a daughter with Marcello Mastroianni. Hallyday was a four-times-married self-professed womaniser.
In his new book, ‘Lady Lucille’, Gilles Lhote said they went to great lengths to hide their long romance after hitting it off when they starred in the 1961 film ‘Les Parisiennes’.
In the book, named after a Hallyday song, the singer is quoted as saying: “Catherine remains the great and beautiful love of the 18-year-old me. The tenderness and friendship have remained. Feelings that we share until this day.”
There had long been speculation over the identity of the woman behind Lady Lucille.
Mr Lhote said: “Johnny told me: ‘When the time is right, it would be good if you recounted the real story of Lady Lucille’.”
Deneuve, who has made no official response to the claims, was curiously absent from Hallyday’s funeral in Paris.
However, Mr Lhote said: “On his tombstone in St Barths, there was a wreath of flowers signed ‘Lady L’.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)
‘Their affair, in secret trysts, carried on for years’