They are proof that love at first sight exists. It was in the summer of 2001, under the Saint-Tropez sun, that Patrick Bruel crossed paths with Amanda Sthers, who celebrated her 46th birthday this Thursday, April 18. The attraction is immediate. The singer is already 42 years old, he doesn't want to waste time. Just two days after their meeting, he invites her to a film festival. On the way, he makes her a proposition that is confusing to say the least, as he recounts in the documentary Bruel between the lines, broadcast on France 3 in 2019. “On August 4 at 2 p.m. on a plane taking me to Locarno to a film festival where I had taken her, I still said to her: 'You have nothing against the fact that we have two children? ' We hadn't known each other for forty-eight hours.“, relates the artist.
A subject which, at first glance, can be frightening, but which in a certain way testifies to the sincerity of the feelings that the singer feels. “That's not a game, we don't play with that. It's instinct and it's called evidence. This is what I wish for everyone“, Patrick Bruel justifies himself. Amanda Sthers, for her part, is not afraid following this unexpected request. “She had laughed, 'You're crazy, you.' I smiled, 'You haven't seen anything yet'“, blurted out the interpreter of Who has the rightwho still remembers this conversation 23 years later, in the pages of Paris Match.
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Amanda Sthers and Patrick Bruel, a media but modest couple
If they form a publicized couple because of their respective careers, they are not particularly keen to open up about their love story. In 2004, while she was promoting her first novel My place in the photo (Ed. Grasset), Amanda Sthers is received by Guillaume Durand on the show Campus. The latter then tries to find out more about his happiness with the singer. “Deep down, we have the impression that for you, it is the transition to writing which has always been desired but which is only possible because there is a kind of extraordinary happiness which has happened to you. (…) which happens to the narrator, that is to say simply love“, notes the journalist. “Yes it's rare enough to be noticed“, she confirms, without giving her interlocutor any more juicy details.
That same year, Amanda Sthers and Patrick Bruel took a new step in their relationship. On September 21, 2004, the couple said “yes” at the town hall of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, during a ceremony headed by the mayor at the time Bertrand Delanoë. Many personalities witness the realization of their love, such as the actress Sandrine Kiberlain or the host Michel Drucker. Several star couples are also present, like Estelle Lefébure and Arthur as well as Laeticia and Johnny Hallyday. After the town hall, all these beautiful people meet at the Lasserre restaurant, says Paris Match. A few days later, a religious ceremony took place at the Great Synagogue of Paris. Already parents of a boy named Oscar and born a year before their marriage, Amanda Sthers and Patrick Bruel will soon expand the family. In 2007, the arrival of Léon filled his parents with happiness.
With their children, Amanda Sthers and Patrick Bruel form an artistic family
Amanda Sthers and Patrick Bruel, who both have an artistic streak, do not hesitate to join forces. In parallel with her activities as an author, Oscar and Léon's mother writes texts for her husband. She notably collaborates with him on the album Memories ahead, released in 2006, for which she wrote two songs. For his part, Patrick Bruel agrees to star in one of his wife's films, who is also a screenwriter and director. In 2019, although they are separated, the singer and actor is appearing in Holy Landsthe adaptation of the novel The Holy Lands by Amanda Sthers.
In 2023, it is with another member of her family that she collaborates. For his film The promises, she chooses to recruit her son Léon. Internally, this collaboration makes you smile. “It's ten years of psychoanalysis, you have your mother who looks at you while you're having sex and who has to say “cut!“”, would have quipped a sound engineer, on the set, at the time of filming. Once again, Amanda Sthers does not want to highlight this family connection. In the show Planned releasesbroadcast on Canal + in July 2023, she explains that “initially, many people didn't know it was (his) son.“If she protects herself so much, it’s because she has too often been brought back to Patrick Bruel.
Thriving alongside Patrick Bruel, Amanda Sthers will also suffer from her notoriety. “I wrote before knowing Patrick. I think that one of the things that appealed to him about me was that I was a writer and so it was complicated because his notoriety took up so much space that people had forgotten that I had been able to make things before, and suddenly it was complicated to be able to exist alone“, she says, on the set of C to youin 2019. And to add, later, in the columns of Psychologies Magazine : “I had suffered, in France, from this persistent idea according to which, because I had been married to Patrick (Bruel, editor's note), I had had privileges. Even though I knew it was false, it hurt me“, admits the writer. For years, Amanda Sthers fought to demonstrate that she owes her talent and success to herself.
Amanda Sthers and Patrick Bruel, partners for life
Patrick Bruel, due to touring and filming, is often absent. Their relationship ends up running out of steam. In 2007, after three years of marriage, they decided to end their affair. Amanda Sthers will then start a new life in the United States. Despite their breakup, they make a promise to each other: to stay linked forever. “Before we got married and had kids, we were best friends. We will remain so despite our separation“, confides Amanda Sthers to Gala in 2015. And the latter emphasizes: “When you have two children and a separation that has gone rather well, you become more than friends, we're a bit like brother and sister. There is an intimacy that cannot go away…“His ex confirms:”There is admiration between us and still love, maybe just in a different form. In any case, we never completely separate from the mother of our children.“
If the feeling of love is no longer present, their bonds seem unbreakable. The two exes remain very close, for their two children, but not only that. They follow each other, accompany each other, support each other. On a personal and professional level. She his biggest fan, he his first reader. “We have an exceptional relationship. We are the typical example of the reconstituted family, of the couple who successfully divorced with intelligence, but above all with respect“, summarizes Patrick Bruel. A great life lesson.
Photo credits: BEST IMAGE / Montage Gala.fr