The stormy personal life of French rock icon Johnny Hallyday made him favoured fodder for gossip magazines. Now, two months after his death, the children from his early marriages are contesting his will, feeding the gossip machine anew, reports FRANCE 24.
As the French-speaking world mourned the loss of music legend Hallyday, whom French President Emmanuel Macron called a “French hero”, David Hallyday, 51, and Laura Smet, 34, the children from two of Hallyday’s four early marriages, stood by Laeticia Boudou, his fourth and final wife, to whom he was married for more than 20 years, and the two little girls the couple had adopted together. It was a picture of solidarity in grief.
Today that picture was shattered with an announcement from Smet, an actress, saying that she had asked her lawyers “to carry out all legal actions” to contest her father’s will. Hallyday left his entire estate and the rights to all his music to Boudou and, in the instance of her death, to the two young girls they adopted together in Vietnam, Jade and Joy.
David Hallyday is a co-plaintiff in his sister’s suit. He is the son of 1960s French pop star Sylvie Vartan, and Smet is the daughter of French actress Nathalie Baye.
“Laura Smet is stupefied and hurt to learn that her father's will leaves all his wealth and rights to his wife Laeticia, using California law," her lawyer said in a statement to AFP.
Hallyday, often called the “French Elvis,” died in December and was immediately buried in St. Barth, where he and his wife had a home.
Smet’s lawyer said that Smet was not left anything to remember her father by, not even the sleeve of the record, “Laura,” that her father had dedicated to her.