David Hallyday opens up about his divorce from Estelle Lefébure: "I didn't see it coming"

Solène Delinger / Photo credit: Nicholas KAMM / AFP 16:55 p.m., November 28, 2023, modified at 17:00 p.m., November 28, 2023

Twenty years after separating from Estelle Lefébure, David Hallyday still has painful memories of their divorce. Madly in love for more than a decade, the lovebirds tied the knot for life in 1989 before welcoming their first daughter Ilona in 1995 and Emma in 1997. It was in 2003, the year of the release of his album Révélation, that David Hallyday finally separated from his alter ego.

"It always starts with a sentence..."

"Frankly, I didn't see that period coming," he confided in his autobiography My Best Album. "On the other hand, who can say, when they get married, that they are planning their divorce? It all always starts with a sentence, dropped one evening in the dim light of the kitchen: 'Let's take a break?' In politics, they call it a 'moratorium', in business 'a period of reflection': we always know how it ends," continues the 57-year-old singer, who was not at all prepared for this separation, which was particularly painful because he and Estelle were still raising their two young daughters.

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"I felt like I was divorcing my own children"

"Beyond our separation from Estelle, I felt like I was divorcing my own children," David Hallyday recalls. "It was terrible. My daughters mean everything to me, and the thought of another man one day sharing their lives tormented my heart and brought me completely to the ground." David Hallyday has fortunately managed to keep a precious bond with his two daughters, with whom he is very close. A year after his divorce from Estelle Lefébure, the rocker's son even found love again and married stylist Alexandra Pastor, with whom he is still in perfect love. A blessing in disguise, then...