The son of legendary French actor Alain Delon confessed in an interview with the French channel RTL that he had promised his father to be with him in the last minutes of his life if he decided it was time for euthanasia. “Yes, it’s true. He asked me about it himself,” said Delon Anthony’s eldest son in an interview he gave for the release of his memoir, “Between a Dog and a Wolf,” about his childhood and life.
This will not be Anthony’s first such experience. In January 2021, he accompanied his mother, Natalie, on her final journey as she was dying of pancreatic cancer. “It’s true that I stayed with my mother until the very last moment, and it’s true that she made her own decision to leave this world through euthanasia,” said Anthony Delon. “Fortunately, we didn’t have to resort to this last option. I say fortunately because everything was in place, but it would have been very painful for us to hold her hand and watch her life ebb away. Yes, her last night wasn’t easy, but in the end she found peace. She let us go at 6 a.m., and at 11 a.m. she was no longer with us. Father was deeply moved.
Alain Delon himself has made it clear on several occasions that, if necessary, he will not hesitate to resort to such a radical means of exiting life as euthanasia. “I am in favor of it,” he reiterated in a major interview on TV5 Monde last year. “First of all, because I live in Switzerland, where euthanasia is possible. And also because I think it is the most logical and natural way out. From a certain age, from a certain moment, we all have the right to such a peaceful departure, without hospitals, injections and so on”. Delon also admitted that he planned and coordinated everything with his Swiss lawyers. “I don’t want any confusion left after me,” he said.
Alain Delon is one of the icons of French cinema. This photo was taken in 1972. Anthony Delon, for his part, said that in the past he had often clashed with his father, but that this time had passed. “He, like me, has distanced himself from all that, from our past, from our conflicts, we have all calmed down,” Anthony emphasized, adding that his father had read his new book carefully before its publication and that its contents had not caused him any negative reaction.
As for the movie star himself, 86-year-old Alain Delon suffered a double stroke in 2019, but gradually recovered and even walks independently, albeit with a cane. “Getting old is disgusting,” he said in 2019, shortly before he ended up in the hospital. “You can’t do anything about it because it’s age. Come on, really – your vision gets worse and everything hurts, or you get tangled up in your own feet. And let me tell you, it’s not funny at all!”