Marked by a childhood spent with foster families and in orphanages, the love life of the legend of world cinema, the French actor Alain Delon – who died today at the age of 88 – was very stormy until he ended his days in semi-reclusion. Several women have marked his life.
ROMY SCHNEIDER: Despite their strong chemistry, it wasn’t love at first sight for the German actress. She thought Delon was “arrogant” when they first met in 1958, even though she was by far the star of the two after the success of the Sissi film trilogy in which she played the Austro-Hungarian empress. They were engaged within months, although they never married. After four tumultuous years, Delon broke up with her in a letter. Yet when they met again to film The Swimming Pool in 1968, sparks flew. He called her “the love of my life” after her tragic death in 1982.
NICO: The German singer and actress of the Velvet Underground claimed to have a son with Delon, Christian Aaron Boulogne, born in 1962. Delon always denied being the father and, while she struggled with drug addiction, the child was raised by his mother.
NATHALIE DELON: was the only woman Delon married. The couple met in a Paris nightclub while he was with Schneider. She was pregnant when they secretly married in 1964. Their relationship, however, was always stormy and they divorced in 1969 after Delon took up with one of his co-stars, Mireille Darc, after a year in Hollywood.
MIREILLE DARC: Her longest relationship was with Darc, a model turned actress and documentary filmmaker. The two remained friends until her death in 2017.
DALIDA: the pop diva and major international music star of the 1960s and 1970s, had an affair with Delon. She was his next-door neighbor when she arrived in Paris in 1956 with “nothing but her Miss Egypt crown.” Their passion rekindled a decade later in Rome, while he was married, and they recorded a single together ‘Paroles, Paroles’ (‘Words, Words’) in 1972. Delon said he was “full of regrets” when she committed suicide in 1987.
ROSALIE VAN BREEMEN: Delon met the Dutch model, 21 years his junior, while shooting a music video in 1987. They had two children, but separated in 2001.