A key figure in the French audiovisual landscape, Olivier Minne nevertheless experienced a major downturn in his career in the early 2000s. He then decided to leave France to go into exile in the United States.

"The television was sometimes very violent," he recalls on Europe 1. 

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 Olivier Minne is a familiar face to France Télévisions viewers, and has been for many years.

But for the host, everything was not always rosy, with notably a slump in the early 2000s. At the time, he then decided to go into exile in the United States, in Los Angeles, before coming back in force on the small French screen a few years later.

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"The television was kind to me, sometimes cruel, and a few rare times very violent", analyzes the host today.

Also, he assures, "I have always been wary of the light (...) There were times when it was taken away from me and fortunately, because I had always kept in mind that it could bring misfortune, I did not sink ".

"I wasn't making any more money"

During this period, he explains, "I had a hard time. I wasn't making any more money, couldn't pay my rent and my food, I saw people around me that I thought were friends. and who turned their backs on me ".

For him, the problem was not so much not to be on the air, but "not to have any more remuneration".

During this slump, he therefore decides to pack his bags and leave France for California: "I tell myself that I have been offered TV time, but now it's over."

This departure is all the more important for him as in France, he no longer feels at ease.

"I was not a star, I was a little known, but unfortunately for me, enough to be a little bored in the supermarket or in the street, by people who, without malice, said to me 'We do not see you anymore. '(...) and it reminded me that I had been abandoned by those who I thought were friends, "says Olivier Minne.

"So I preferred to leave."

Los Angeles rather than New York

At this time, Olivier Minne plans to turn again to the theater, his first ambition. "And to do theater while being as virgin as possible of everything, you had to go abroad," he explains. “England was not an option since my grandparents lived there. So I went far away to Los Angeles rather than New York. Because in Los Angeles, when I woke up and started my day , Paris was falling asleep. As I started my day and entered my new energy, those who had tried to hurt me or who had simply abandoned me fell asleep. "