"I was wasting away": Julie Gayet reveals why she suffered so much at the start of her relationship with François Hollande

Solène Delinger 1:49 p.m., March 02, 2023

Julie Gayet is back on the front of the stage: the wife of François Hollande is releasing a new book on her fight for feminism entitled 

in bookstores on March 8, and it will soon be on display of the film

directed by Sébastien Bailly.

Invited on the set of C à vous on Wednesday March 1 to talk about these two projects, Julie Gayet was led to confide in a complicated period of her life. 

"I couldn't get out"

The actress initially explained that she wanted to write about her feminism thanks to her meeting with a certain Gwen, who "takes women victims of violence out of their homes" to "get them away from their violent spouses".

"It's a pretty crazy story, by the way, because it was when there was this 

affair ", detailed the actress, referring to the "scoop" of the people magazine which had revealed her romantic relationship with the former President of the Republic, François Hollande. 

"Agnès Varda was not a feminist in words, she was in deeds. That's what Agnès said, we have to be together, together we are stronger!"@IamJulieGayet in #CàVouspic.twitter .com/KnVeSR51eD

— C to you (@cavousf5) March 1, 2023

"I was completely locked up, I couldn't go out and those around me found that I was wasting away, that I was dying out", continues Julie Gayet who had put in place a surprising ploy to get out of her home without being intercepted by the paparazzi.

"A friend dressed up as me and pretended to get into a car and run away. And I was going very calmly, with my little brother, into another car. Then I found myself after being tackled in the ground of another car", remembers the actress in

It was then, in "this kind of absolutely crazy epic", that Julie Gayet heard about the famous Gwen. 

Gwen, an "incredible" person who helps battered women

"The boy driving said to me, 'It's okay, you can get out.' women to get them out [from the grip of their] violent companions", says the wife of François Hollande who immediately wanted to learn more about Gwen's fight.

"It was a very, very strong moment and I said, 'I want to meet Gwen!'

What I did a little later and who is an incredible person”, confides the actress who wrote about Gwen in her new book.

"All the portraits are [those] of the women I met", explains the actress about her book which will be released symbolically on March 8, on the occasion of International Women's Rights Day.