The occasion that brought this confession was the release of her new book, which bears the name of the address where she grew up, protected from the eyes of the world: 11 Quai Branly. “It was a place out of the ordinary, where no schoolmate could ever come knocking at the door. As soon as the door was closed, my father and I would play checkers or watch matches on a red-striped sofa. A normal but isolated life”
“We lived together, but no one knew and no one should have known. Me, my mum Anne and my dad François Mitterrand were a family, really. But a hidden family”. This is how Mazarine Pingeot, for 20 years the secret daughter of the former French president, describes her story in an interview for Corriere della Sera.
The occasion that brought this confession was the release of her new book, which bears the name of the address where she grew up, protected from the eyes of the world: 11 Quai Branly. “It was a place out of the ordinary, where no schoolmate could ever come knocking at the door. As soon as the door was closed, my father and I would play checkers or watch matches on a red-striped sofa. A normal life, but isolated”.
GEORGE BUSH’S PHONE CALLS
Mazarine is the fruit of François Mitterrand’s affair with Anne Pingeot, an art historian 27 years his junior. A great but hidden love: Mitterrand, married to Danielle Gouze and father of two grown children, never divorced. “My mother thought she would raise me alone. But in his own way, father always stood by us.” Mazarine lived with her mother in a service apartment on the Elysee, with no name on the door. Every evening, Mitterrand came to see them and often stayed to sleep. Very few people knew the phone number of the apartment.
“Sometimes the Prime Minister, or George Bush, called us in the middle of the night. Even my first lover, to whom I told the truth”.
In the apartment facing the Seine and near the Eiffel Tower, Mitterrand and his daughter created games and improvised scenes from the series Dallas.
“My father was very loving, although somewhat reserved.” When Mazarine was 6 years old, Mitterrand became President of France. “My father is the president!”, she shouted in the school yard. But he soon realized that he couldn’t talk about it. In the car, he hid between the seats so they wouldn’t see him. No one ordered him to do it; secrecy was her mission. He also learned to ride a bicycle with guards by his side: she on auxiliary wheels, eight bodyguards behind her. “Luxury of the Republic for the bastard of the Republic”, she comments with bitter irony.
THE DISCOVERY OF A NATIONAL SECRET
On November 10, 1994, all of France discovered its existence. Paris Match magazine published a photo of Mitterrand and Mazarine chatting on the street after lunch, his hand caressing her shoulder. A secret known to politicians and journalists, but not to the French people, was made public with the approval of Mitterrand himself, now ill with cancer.
“We sent the photos to the Elysee through a minister, out of respect,” said the director of Paris Match. “When the president saw them, he simply said: ‘The newspaper knows what to do. Anyway, it’s a beautiful story.”
For Mazarine, the revelation was a release hard to bear. “The photographers claimed they did me a favor. In fact, they exposed me to the curiosity of the world.”
Her life as the beloved daughter of a president was short-lived: Mitterrand passed away in January 1996. At his funeral, both families – the official one and the secret one – appeared together in public for the first time. “I was happy to be with my brothers.”
AN INTELLIGENT LEGACY
Today, Mazarine is a philosophy professor, writer and mother of three children. Only a few years ago, she added her father’s surname to her documents, but on the cover of the new book only the initials “M” appear.
“I’m not used to this,” he says. Not all French people are sympathetic to her story. The state apartment, the guards, the driver – all this was paid for by the taxpayers. She smiles, her tousled hair reflecting her complicated life. And reflects with a slight bitterness: “I was loved a lot, yes. But I always knew that my sister rival, France, was more important.”
