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It is a drama that marked forever the famous singer Enrico Macias. On August 12, 1965, Jean-Claude, the singer’s brother, tragically died in a car accident. The latter, who had only had his driving license for a fortnight, accompanies a troupe of artists in which there are Serge Lama and his fiancée Liliane Benelli, a talented pianist.
At the wheel of a Peugeot 404, Jean-Claude collided head-on with a first plane tree where the A8 motorway passes today. “He was driving at 140 an hour. It was the most dangerous hour: between dog and wolf. In addition, Jean-Claude was very tired, the road was narrow and curved. He took a turn badly and n couldn’t straighten it out,” explained Serge Lama in Ciné Revue in 1970 and added: “And then he wasn’t insured, it was madness. When I saw him go at breakneck speed, at nightfall, I clung on and said my prayer. I was answered, since I did not die”.
Enrico Macas’ brother was then “ejected” from his seat and “stuck between the bonnet of the car”, reported Lomig Guillo in his biography Serge Lama, Chanter pour vivre, published by Editions Prisma on November 5, 2020. The fiancée of the interpreter of I am sick died instantly while Jean-Claude died a few hours later from his injuries.
A drama that will mark both the singer Enrico Macias who lost his brother in this road accident but also Serge Lama who lost his fiancée Liliane Benelli that evening.
In May 2020, the Netflix Family Business star was hospitalized for several months following a bad fall. “I started to leave my house, happy to finally live again, to find this Paris which took me in its arms, he explains. I missed a step on a sidewalk. I fell heavily and I broke the neck of the femur. They operated on me the same evening and then I spent two months in a hospital room”, he confided in the columns of Soir Mag.
With the current health crisis and the containment in place, Enrico Macias revealed that he had experienced the situation very badly. “These sixty days have been difficult to live. I slept a lot, but badly, because I was woken up early in the morning for care. (…) To be honest, I also experienced moments of strong depression”, he had affirmed.
Today, the interpreter of Children of all countries seems to be doing better. To regain the hair of the beast, he went into exile for some time in Tunisia. “I had a room facing the sea, I walked in the swimming pool every day for hours. I was even able to go to the beach very often to enjoy an always blue sky and the sun. It gave me in good shape and I finally regained my morale,” he said.
In 1962, singer Enrico Macias married his partner Suzy Leyris, daughter of singer Raymond Leyris. Together, they become the happy parents of two children: Jocya, in 1964 and Jean-Claude in 1969.
Unfortunately, his wife died suddenly in 2008 following a fourth heart operation. It wasn’t until 2016 that the star finally broke her silence. “The first three years, I was completely like a zombie. I lived alone in my apartment. Luckily there was the telephone, I called my buddies, my friends, my children, my grandchildren. I suffered a lot from the death of my wife“, he confided to VSD.
Invited to RMC in February 2019, he confided again in this tragic loss. “You know, when I lost my wife, she died in my arms. She left twice. When she died the first time, I was told that she had died (…) She expired again a second time when I took her in my arms”, he had explained and to conclude: “Now I am no longer afraid of death because she was a second myself. There is no of reason that I am afraid when she is already gone.