Those who only knew her from afar were stunned: “Coline is very shy”, “she worked in her father's footsteps”… On January 21, however, this “discreet” woman, who posted her on social networks. admiration for his father, Richard Berry, filed a complaint against him for acts of rape or incestuous sexual assault and corruption of a minor.
"Filthy" accusations according to the actor, who denied them on February 2, "with all [his] strength and without ambiguity".
Three days later in Le Monde, Coline Berry-Rojtman, 45, described a father who kissed her "on the mouth with the tongue" when she was 4 years old.
And would have pushed her, between her 6 and 10 years old, to participate in “sex games” with him and singer Jeane Manson.
Since then, two versions are opposed.
Manson and his daughter Shirel deny these allegations.
Mathieu Petit, Coline's first husband, shares his “monstrous doubts”.
Coline, she is supported by her cousin Marilou Berry, her aunt Josiane Balasko, her ex-husband the producer Romain Rojtman and her mother, Catherine Hiegel.
In the entourage of Richard Berry, one denounces the “lies” of a fragile girl and desperately in search of the love of her father.
“Coline's personality makes lying impossible for her,” says Romain Rojtman.
I spent fourteen years with her: this incest has always been very present in our life.
"Marilou Berry describes a woman" very balanced, very sensible, not at all mythomaniac ", who" has long hidden her suffering under the varnish of a spoiled little girl ".
A teenager who claimed her parentage
Coline was born with two parents who lived at the Comédie-Française in 1975. Richard Berry and Catherine Hiegel separated when she was 2 years old: the girl then lived with her mother and saw her father every other weekend and during the holidays.
Coline follows her schooling in the very chic college and high school Montaigne, in the 6th arrondissement.
A friend remembers a teenager who claimed her parentage: “There were plenty of
sons from
Montaigne: Charlotte Gainsbourg, the daughters of Galabru, of Mocky, Nathanaël Karmitz… Most wanted to hide their kinship.
Coline, she said:
My name is Coline Berry, I am the daughter of Richard Berry
.
"
Richard Berry, here with his daughter Coline in 2013, denies these accusations./Davy Patrick / ABACA
After graduating from high school, the young girl then began a degree in philosophy at Paris-II.
“He was the head of the family,” says Marilou Berry.
Coline is the only Berry to have studied.
She even took a course in psychology a year ago.
She becomes an actor agent after having stopped her thesis
The actress, who is eight years younger than her cousin, confides that, as a child, she was "super impressed by Coline: she was brilliant, beautiful, a dancer, she rode a horse ...".
Coline leaves college in the first year of her thesis, when she realizes that she does not want to become a teacher.
She has been working for the artistic agency Artmedia and its subsidiary VMA for two years, where she becomes an assistant and agent for writers and actors.
Coline Berry will stay there for thirteen years, before joining a new agency in 2012, AS Talents, which notably counts as clients Jean Reno, Franck Dubosc, Christian Clavier… and Richard Berry.
In 2014, she stopped working.
At that time, the career of her husband, Romain Rojtman, took off.
The thirty-something produced the “Student Ducobu”, “Joséphine” or “What did we do to the good Lord?
"And the UGC group entrusts him with a subsidiary, with which he will launch" Gaston Lagaffe "or the sequel to" Good God ".
Sometimes virulent emails sent in 2014
Already the mother of a daughter she had in 2002 with cameraman Mathieu Petit and of a son born in 2010, Coline is expecting a daughter again.
This is where the explosion takes place: learning of the pregnancy of Richard Berry's partner, she sends her father emails, sometimes very virulent, in which she accuses him of incest.
The actor himself talks about it to his family and to some relatives, in particular to Bertrand de Labbey, his agent for thirty years.
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“During a lunch in an 18th century restaurant, Richard, extremely affected, told me about these messages,” says the ex-boss of Artmedia.
He told me that it was appalling and that he couldn't manage to reason with Coline… ”Marilou Berry also remembers that day in 2014 when her father, the sculptor Philippe Berry, Richard's brother, had spoken to her about these letters: “We were in the kitchen of his workshop… I contacted Coline.
She explained to me that, as a child, she played in the orchestra with Richard and Jeane:
Papa's weed is the trumpet and Jeane's breasts, the cymbal
.
His story hasn't moved a comma since.
"
Catherine Hiegel, the first to have received her confidences
The actress Catherine Hiegel, here with Coline, supports her daughter.
/ Cyril Bruneau / Festival de Ramatuelle / Bestimage
Before this famous year 2014, some "knew" already: Romain Rojtman since his meeting with Coline in 2006, Mathieu Petit since 2001. According to several sources, friends from high school and college would have recently reconnected with Coline: they would remember that ' at the time, she had spoken to them about touching from her father ... But the first to have received her confidences was Catherine Hiegel.
The actress remembers her 4-year-old daughter kissing her once with her tongue, telling her that she was doing this with her father.
“At 10 years old, Coline refused to see Richard for over a year,” says the actress.
She explained to me that he was violent and asked her for kisses.
"
It was at 17 that Coline, who was then going through attacks of anorexia and bulimia, told her mother about the “sexual games” that she denounced today.
Catherine Hiegel will not file a complaint.
No more than she had done when Richard Berry had been violent towards her "on several occasions".
If the actress evokes her "fear" of her ex, her relatives also advance her fear of losing custody of her daughter, then exposing her to a media storm.
"It's been seven years that Richard has been striving to exclude Coline from the family"
Today, Romain Rojtman and Marilou Berry underline Coline's attempts to obtain from her father the "recognition" of what she denounces.
In vain.
"Richard has been striving to exclude Coline from the family for seven years," says Marilou.
From 2014, the clan explodes.
Until their deaths in 2017 and 2018, Richard's parents continued to see their son and broke up with the one who was considered the “favorite” granddaughter, the one who adored the holidays, knew the recipes of her grand- mother and even converted, as an adult, to the religion of her paternal family.
Philippe and Marilou have stopped seeing Richard.
The two brothers, who already had a stormy relationship, remained angry until Philippe's death in 2019. Richard was not present at the funeral of his younger brother.
Marie, she, today sided with her brother.
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Richard Berry accused of incest: "I know my brother better than anyone"
According to those around him, it was "after having tried dozens of times to settle this matter in private" that Coline Berry-Rojtman lodged a complaint.
“I told him: You realize what a mess you're going to get into, reports a friend.
She replied:
If I don't, I'll die
.
"" It is a process of reconstruction, abounds Romain Rojtman.
It is also important for our children: family secrets are destroyed over several generations.
Richard Berry has still not been heard by the police.