Maripier Morin is fine. Maripier Morin is better. Three years after her excommunication from show business, and two months before her return to the air, the host breathes with more serenity. “My Way of the Cross, I’m still in it. But the cross is less heavy. »
La Presse met Maripier Morin on Thursday afternoon in Montreal, after a media event that had attracted around sixty people (journalists, photographers, influencers, friends, artists). The reason ? The launch of a range of non-alcoholic drinks called Mox.
For nearly three hours, the young 36-year-old woman sailed from guest to guest, posed in front of the photographers’ lens and multiplied the interviews. All in high heels (an accessory that she “no longer used to wearing”, she says) and, above all, smiling. After having seen her shed tears on several platforms in recent months, this scene seemed to mark a cut.
From an outside eye, we thought we were observing a fish that finds its jar. A perception that Maripier Morin, once seated at the Joséphine restaurant, quickly corrected.
“I would be lying to you if I said I slept great for a week. There is always the specter of the media event. Are people coming? Are things going to be okay? How am I going to feel? I create scenarios in my head. I always see the worst case: there won’t be a cat, and people will throw rocks at me. It is more or less that… “
Nevertheless, by regaining the spotlight in this way, does the main interested party have the impression of reconnecting with “her life before”, when she was enthroned at the top of the ladder?
“I’ll never find that life again, and I don’t know if it interests me,” replies Maripier Morin candidly. What is important to me today is the encounter with people. Promoting a random new product, talking to reporters and taking nice pictures to feed my ego is bad for me. Before, I felt like it was going to make me happy. But it’s a decoy. It does not exist. The real deal is what I am building on a daily basis with my boyfriend, my daughter, my family. »
The return of Maripier Morin has been rumbling for some time. It will be made official on Monday, August 21, when she takes over the morning show of WKND 99.5 Montreal, a young radio station from the Leclerc Communication group launched in 2020, the year everything fell apart after a public denunciation of Safia Nolin for sexual harassment and physical assault. The star of the small screen then found herself at the heart of journalistic investigations revealing her reprehensible behavior (Le Devoir, La Presse).
Listening to her talk about the state of mind in which she was when Benoît Simard, the director of programs at WKND, contacted her last February to ask her to audition, we see that the call came at the right time.
“At some point, feeling against the grain, when nothing is working… Everyone has a limit. I think I had reached mine,” she continues.
Maripier Morin was so convinced she was going to bite the dust with WKND that she didn’t even inform her lover, actor Jean-Philippe Perras, that a top secret audition was planned. In the end, despite apparent nervousness (“I shakais”), the trial proved successful, and the offer went through.
“I’m just happy to have the chance to do the job I love,” she says, sipping her mocktail. In therapy, when I arrived, they asked me, “What are you going to do with the rest of your life?” I have never cried the same. Because I have no idea what I’m good at, other than communicating, being curious and talking to people. I don’t have any studies. What else am I going to do? »
Anyone who has a television, a tablet or even a cell phone knows the main lines of Maripier Morin’s journey since the summer of 2020. Recently on ICI Télé, we saw her pour out with France Castel on the show L’autre noon at the next table. We also heard her on Marie-Claude Barrette’s podcast Open your game. In each case, she didn’t shy away from any topic: her years of drug and alcohol use, her therapy, her walk, her recovery, and so on.
And since December 2021, she has hosted a social podcast entitled Seeds of Hope which, you guessed it, deals with addiction.
After discussing the subject on several forums, does Maripier Morin intend one day to imitate France Castel and gently close the door on his past vices?
“I talk about it on my podcast because it makes me feel good, and I feel like it makes a lot of other people feel good. But I’m not going to do just that. Otherwise, it’s alienating. Worse it becomes uninteresting. At one point, it’s like, “OK, that’s beautiful. We understand. Move on !” »
Maripier Morin knows that his name will be “eternally” stuck to the events of recent years. But she seems to accept it.
“When I started the fraternity meetings, they always told me: “Maripier, you have to give time time to do its time.” That’s not what I wanted to hear. I wanted it to go at my pace! But they were right: it takes time. I would not have been able to be here, six months later, talking about a recovery process, the foundations that I managed to lay in my life, the reflections that I made, the concrete changes and real that I brought. »
Between now and her debut on the air at WKND 99.5 Montreal, the host will have to take a pivotal step in a mother’s journey: sending her daughter Margot, just over 1 year old, to daycare. This obligatory passage seems to worry her greatly, since twice during our interview, she mentions it with a grimace.
“When I accept my vulnerability, I find my strength to move forward. Because I’m not perfect, I’m not a Wonder Woman, I’m not mom of the year. I’m just doing my best. »
As for the rest, she finally sees the end of the tunnel.
“I’m regaining confidence in myself, in my abilities… It feels good, taking care of yourself.” It’s new for me. I am not used to that. »
