“It’s a miracle that I’m still alive and happy to be able to make a living from this job,” Michèle Richard confessed to Marie-Claude Barrette’s podcast. Open your game.
If she could go back in time, the 77-year-old singer, who suffers from unhealthy insecurity, explains that she would be much more discreet about her personal life.
“The hardest part was living my private life in front of the public at all times of the day and year. Had I known that, I would have been less generous with the press. I opened the door, but little did I know that I would be stuck with this for the rest of my life. It was my fate,” says the Sherbrooke-born artist.
TOMA ICZKOVITS/QMI AGENCY
anonymity
Michèle Richard is considered the woman who sold the most gossip magazines in Quebec history. At the age of ten she began singing with her father, the violinist Ti-Blanc Richard. She has therefore never lived in anonymity and admits that she has never really sought it.
“Fortunately, because I would have been very unhappy,” she said.
After a career spanning more than 60 years, does the singer now have moments of peace between television interviews and autographs for admirers in the supermarket or while walking on the street?
“I got it [l’anonymat] when I travel and when I return home, to the water, to nature,” replies the only daughter who was orphaned and the faithful and passionate lover who is now single.
The only consolation for the singer after the death of her mother, then her father, with whom she had a close relationship? The extravagant magazine covers that could no longer harm them. “I was glad my parents were no longer in this world to see this,” she breathes through a tight throat.
Decency
Alone despite the love of the audience
Even though Michèle Richard no longer often goes on stage to perform her well-known songs or take part in musical revues (which she enjoyed so much), she still continues to increase her participation in variety shows.
Throughout her career, it is the love of the audience that makes her proudest. A love “that you can’t buy, that you earn and work from,” she emphasizes. “You are in my heart, I am in yours,” adds the artist, who takes the time to listen to the stories of the admirers she meets.
The love for his animals also plays a central role in the life of the actor, who never had children. Michèle Richard has no problem saying that she is more “dependent” on her dog than he can be on her.
“I had no children, I have no family. It was my fate to be alone. Friends and my animals are my life. With my dog I am like a mother to her little one. I just feel comfortable with them,” she admits.