The actor died at the age of 88 on the morning of August 18. The last few months had been marked by intra-family conflicts.
The Delon family has been more torn than ever in recent months, and the news of Alain Delon’s death probably won’t help matters. Between the Hiromi Rollin affair, the actor’s health problems, and the conflicts between his three children, the family was already torn apart.
The name of the Delon family appeared in all the media in the summer of 2023. At that time, the actor’s three children, Anthony, Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, filed a complaint against Hiromi Rollin, the actor’s companion, who presented herself as his partner since 1989, even before the birth of Anouchka and Alain-Fabien. The first complaint by the actor’s three children concerned facts of “moral harassment, misappropriation of correspondence and animal abuse”. They denounced Hiromi Rollin’s “denigrating and aggressive attitude”, as well as “her actions tending to capture for her own benefit letters and telephone messages” from Alain Delon. A second complaint was filed by the eldest son, Anthony, for acts of violence against a vulnerable person and abuse of weakness. An investigation was opened by the Montargis prosecutor’s office on July 6, 2023, the day after Hiromi Rollin was evicted from the actor’s property in Douchy. She responded with a complaint against the three children for slanderous denunciations and violence during her eviction from the property.
At the beginning of the year, on January 4, 2024, the three complaints were dismissed for insufficiently characterized offense, as reported by The PointThe investigations carried out by the Orléans research section and the Montargis research brigade, during which “nearly fifty witnesses” were heard and “searches at the homes of Alain Delon and Hiromi Rollin” were carried out, allowed the Montargis public prosecutor’s office to conclude: “No act of violence against Alain Delon was observed by the witnesses or by the health personnel who visited him regularly. […] Although Hiromi Rollin’s behavior could be described as directive by some witnesses, there is no causal link with a deterioration in Alain Delon’s health that could characterize the offense of moral harassment. The offense of abuse of weakness does not appear to be established either.” Concerning Hiromi Rollin’s complaint, the public prosecutor of Montargis, Jean-Cédric Gaux, assured that “the use of video recordings makes it possible to rule out the commission of a positive act of violence on July 5, 2023”, and that “the offense of slanderous denunciation is finally not established, due to the lack of characterization of bad faith on the part of the Delon children”.
Just a few days after this court decision, Hiromi Rollin accused Alain Delon’s three children of harming his health. In a letter to the courts on January 12, she said she was “particularly worried and shocked” after the complicated exchanges between the children about their father’s state of health. As revealed by The Parisianshe denounced an “attempted voluntary homicide” after learning that the actor had stopped taking treatment.
Torn children
This Hiromi Rollin affair also highlighted deep disagreements between Anthony, Anouchka and Alain-Fabien. Indeed, the two boys and the daughter of Alain Delon have been divided for a long time because of the assumed and displayed preference of the actor for Anouchka.
In addition, the day the courts dismissed the three complaints, Anthony gave a shocking interview in Paris Match. He spoke about his father’s declining health, accusing his half-sister of manipulating him. He blames her for not having been informed that their father had failed “five cognitive tests” between 2019 and 2022. As a reminder, the actor’s health deteriorated after a stroke in 2019. An interview that was far from pleasing Anouchka and her father, who went through their lawyer, Me Christophe Ayela, to make it known that the actor was “extremely shocked by the media frenzy orchestrated by his son Anthony” whose remarks were intended to “harm him”. Anouchka announced in the process that she was filing a complaint against her half-brother for defamation, malicious denunciation, threats and harassment. A settling of scores ensued via television sets. In addition, Alain-Fabien got involved in the story and supported his half-brother. He accused his sister of exercising “control” over their father. He also claimed that she hid her intention to bring Alain Delon back to Switzerland, where he has been a citizen since 1999, in order to benefit from a lower tax rate on the inheritance, while he had made it clear that he wanted to end his days in his residence in Douchy.
For her part, Anouchka assured that her desire to have her father live in Switzerland was due to the desire to continue his medical treatment. She in turn made accusations against her brothers, who wanted to treat their father’s illness “with fruit and vegetable juices”. On January 10, just a few days after the start of this fratricidal media war, a request for judicial protection “for health reasons” for Alain Delon was made by the family’s lawyers. The Montargis public prosecutor’s office had contacted “an authorized doctor to assess Alain Delon’s situation”. A trial was scheduled for 2025.
The Actor’s Legacy
This family rift is reminiscent of the one that occurred after the death of another French star, Johnny Hallyday. In 2017, the singer’s death led to a rift between his children, David and Laura, born from a previous marriage, and Laetitia and their two daughters, over his inheritance.
Concerning the Delon family, the question of inheritance is thorny. First of all for the beneficiaries. Indeed, the law is different between France, where the actor was born and died, and Switzerland, where he was a citizen. It is therefore up to the children to agree, or for the courts to decide on the rules that will be applied. It is important to specify that the amount of his fortune is estimated between 50 and 300 million euros. A wide range which shows in any case an exceptional sum to be shared by the actor’s beneficiaries.