Salvatore Adamo – who celebrates his 80th birthday on Wednesday, November 1, 2023 – is the father of three children: two boys from his marriage to Nicole Durant and a girl, the result of his affair with Annethe Hal.
It took years for him to uncover the truth. Salvatore Adamo is the father of three children: Anthony, born in 1969, Amélie (1979) and Benjamin (1980). Two legitimate sons and an illegitimate daughter.
Salvatore Adamo has long led people to believe that his three children were the result of his marriage to Nicole Durant, his childhood friend whom he married in 1969 and to whom he is still married.
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Salvatore Adamo and his wife Nicole Durant in 1969 © ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images
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Legally hidden illegitimacy
In reality, the Italian-Belgian singer’s daughter was born from his affair with actress Annethe Hal, whom he met on the set of “L’île aux coquelicots” (1970). A truth that remained hidden until a biography of the singer was published in 2003.
“I didn’t want to[Amélie] comes across an article and reads that she didn’t exist,” Salvatore Adamo said in a 2010 interview with “Paris Match” about the public lie about his daughter.
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At first she wasn’t happy…
Salvatore Adamo about his wife Nicole Durant
And added: “We had to wait for the right moment for the public to know the truth.” I didn’t want to hurt anyone. » Only Amélie and Annethe Hal and Nicole Durant knew the reality.
In fact, Salvatore Adamo could count on the complicity of his confided wife: “At first she was not happy… And then, philosophically, she accepted it,” he said. .
An (almost) normal childhood
However, Amélie did not grow up with her stepmother and her half-brothers Anthony and Benjamin. She was born in Germany and raised in France by her mother Annethe Hal so she could see her father “regularly.”
“I was very quickly made aware of his situation and his other family. “It all always seemed normal to me,” she told Paris Match. “The most complicated thing was having a famous singer father. »
Successful singer, distant father
Salvatore Adamo was a rather absent father: “When I was on tour, I delegated the problems to the mothers. I came back with my arms full of presents, I looked it. But it’s a bit loose […] Unfortunately, that’s the crowd of acrobats…”
Salvatore Adamo with his wife Nicole and their son Anthony in 1974 © Horst Ossinger/Picture Alliance via Getty Images
“That’s one of the few things I regret about this job. For example, I went to Japan 38 times to sing. Once I stayed there for two months. I really questioned what I was doing and especially why I wasn’t with my children. »
Broken family
From now on he tries to be “more sensible” and, above all, to take advantage of the family peace. In 2004, his daughter Amélie and his wife Nicole met in the hospital where the singer was recovering from a cerebral hemorrhage.
” Out of […] “Amélie has the right to come into the house and that is very important to me,” Salvatore Adamo told “Gala” in 2013. And added: “The fact that she is accepted in my family helped me a lot.” »
Like the father, like the children
Despite his absence, Salvatore Adamo passed on his love of music to his three children. His eldest Anthony (54 years old) is a pilot, but in his free time he is also a bass player. Her daughter Amélie is a singer.
“For years I didn’t even think about singing. I was touring, taking acting classes and saying I wanted to be a director or producer. I even worked in publishing in London,” she said.
Father-daughter duo
“I hid the truth,” admitted Amélie Adamo, who eventually took the microphone to sing a duet with her father on the album “De toi à moi” (2010). Benjamin, Salvatore Adamo’s youngest son, is a musician. To avoid comparison with his father, he moved to London.
Salvatore Adamo and his daughter Amélie in 2010 © KIRCHWITZ/STAR PRESS/SIPA
“He is in a group called Fujiya & Miyagi,” said Salvatore Adamo in “Vivement Dimanche” in February 2023. “If I may say, he is quiet. When I found out the reason, it obviously made me sad, but I thought it was very brave, it’s a man’s decision. »