The family of the French businessman, actor, singer and former politician Bernard Tapie have attacked a Netflix miniseries based on his colourful life, reports The Guardian.
The series, described as half-biopic, half-fiction, will relate the story of “an ordinary man with an extraordinary ambition”.
Tapie, one of France’s best-known personalities, died two years ago. The son of a Paris plumber, he rose to become president of Olympique de Marseille (OM) football club and hold a major stake in the sportswear brand Adidas.
The first of seven episodes inspired by the tycoon will be released by Netflix on Wednesday despite vehement opposition from Tapie’s widow, Dominique, and children.
Dominique told French journalists: “I don’t dread it, I deplore it. The producers said it was a fiction, but a fiction called Bernard Tapie? I find that incredible. I do not condone it and I remind everyone that we were not consulted in any way.”
Shortly before his death in October 2021, her husband expressed his objections to the series.
“I was against it … to do it without asking without my agreement in principle; not good. A documentary is something else, but to use my name, it’s a bit too much,” he told Var-Matin, his local newspaper.