Actress Charlotte Valandrey, known for her roles in the film Red Kiss and the series Tomorrow belongs to us, died on July 13, 2022 following a heart attack. The actress had been sick with AIDS since she was 17. She has always refused to give the name of the man who transmitted the virus to her.
Charlotte Valandrey was barely of age when she contracted HIV. At the microphone of franceinfo, she had told of having had a sexual relationship with a “Gothic prince”, a member of a known rock group. “I will never say who he was. I would have problems,” she confided later to France Dimanche. According to Charlotte Valandrey, the man did not know that he was suffering from the disease. “As soon as he found out, he asked me to go for a blood test, she testified. I did not forgive him in five minutes, but over time, I had no no choice but to forgive him.”
The artist has chosen to take responsibility for his illness, by speaking about it publicly in the media. She proclaimed during an interview for L’Express in 2005: “I was contaminated by loving: it’s not a fault. I’m not guilty of having aroused desire, not guilty of having sought love. ‘love too soon. Guilty of nothing!’. The same year, Charlotte Valandrey had released an autobiographical book called L’Amour dans le sang, in which she spoke of AIDS.
Charlotte Valandrey was revealed very early, thanks to her role in the feature film Red Kiss, at the age of 17. Unfortunately, her promising career ends prematurely when she reveals to a director that she is HIV positive. The latter then chooses to exclude him from the casting of the film Noce blanche. Subsequently, Charlotte Valandrey will experience success thanks to the small screen: viewers find her in the series Les Cordier, judge and cop, from 1991 to 2000, and Tomorrow belongs to us, from 2017 to 2019.
The actress had undergone heavy triple therapy for years. In 2003, she was the first HIV-positive person to receive a heart transplant in France. Five years later, she was transplanted a second time. Charlotte Valandrey died of a heart attack on July 13. “His third heart did not live,” testified his relatives with sadness in a press release.