He is the first grandchild of the clan. Monday, July 24, during the funeral of Jane Birkin, Roman de Kermadec stood alongside Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lou Doillon and some of their children to welcome, on the forecourt of the church of Saint Roch, the coffin of the artist. A rare image, Kate Barry's son usually staying away from the cameras.
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Jane Birkin's eldest daughter was only 20 years old when she gave birth to him in March 1987. The same age as the English actress and musician was when Kate was born. This grandson, the first, is a great joy for Birkin, who becomes a grandmother at just 40 years old. She and he will become very close.
Kate Barry is the only child of Jane Birkin and the American-British musician John Barry, known for having composed soundtracks for cult films, such as James Bond, Out of Africa or Dances with Wolves. Birkin married Barry in 1965. She is 17 and he is 32. This short-lived union gave birth to Kate in 1967, less than a year before their separation. Jane then chose to live in France and met Serge Gainsbourg, who would raise the child as his daughter until she was 13. Before the mythical couple separated, in 1980.
See alsoJane Birkin, his daughter Kate Barry and the drama of his life
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Kate will suffer in adolescence from various addictions, to alcohol, medication and drugs, as told in 1996 the magazine l'Express. But she will have the strength to preserve her unborn child, by becoming abstinent during her pregnancy, as Paris Match later notes. Roman is named after the filmmaker Polanski. He will know little about his father, Pascal de Kermadec, also addicted to drugs, who dies, when the child is only four years old. If Kate does not collapse right away, this fragile and sensitive woman will eventually plunge back into her addictions, before regaining control, and leaving for rehab in England. She then entrusts her son to Jane, delighted to have a baby again.
Kate is a fighter. Roman's mother rebuilds herself in the shadow of the spotlight. She, who is undoubtedly Jane Birkin's most discreet daughter, prefers to be behind the lenties. She asserts herself as a talented photographer and portraitist at the age of 28, exhibits in Japan or Italy, collaborates with the most prestigious publications. And also signs photos for album covers of Lara Fabian, Raphaël or Carla Bruni. She photographs to better hide: a model for Roman, who will also remain in the shadow of the women of his family, without ever revealing himself publicly, or so rarely.
When his mother died in December 2013, from a fall from the fourth floor of his Paris apartment, the young man became an orphan at the age of 26. Remaining close to his grandmother and his two aunts, Charlotte and Lou, he is all the more discreet, does not publish any statement or public tribute to his missing mother. Only an Instagram account will give some clues about the life he leads, over the years. He can be seen shooting a series of shoots, placed behind a camera.
In video, Jane by Charlotte, the trailer
So his grandmother Jane speaks for him. That same year, she decided to sell her Parisian house and wanted to get closer to her grandson geographically: "It's sinister, this big house, now that my grandchildren are old or far away. By selling it, I will be able to take an 85 m² for my dog Dolly and me, and an apartment for the son of my daughter Kate, "she confides to the Parisian (Weekend). Three years later she again indulges in some modest confidences: "[Kate's death] has turned my life upside down, that of her sisters and her son too," she reveals this time to Gala magazine. That's all.
Years go by, it is now "Grandma", as he calls her on Instagram, who disappears. It is there that he pays tribute to her this time, in one image. We can see the two women in his life, his mother and grandmother, embraced: "Grandma you have joined Maman.... Love You," he commented. Without revealing itself.