French Acting Icon Alain Delon Placed Under Legal Protection Amid Family Feud

Melanie Goodfellow
·2 min read
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Alain Delon has been placed under legal protection amid concerns about the 88-year-old acting icon’s health and well-being as his children squabble over his medical and living arrangements.

French media reported on Monday that a guardianship judge made the decision this week.

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The legal protection order will not impact Delon’s day to day life but prevents him from selling a major asset and will see a third-party representative assist the actor in choosing suitable medical treatment and doctors.

The legal protection order comes amid a public spat between Delon’s oldest son Anthony, by French model Francine Canovas, and daughter and son Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, by Dutch model and TV presenter Rosalie van Breemen.

Their public mudslinging over their opposing views on Delon’s health and future first hit the French headlines in early January following a Paris Match interview in which Anthony voiced fears for his father’s health, saying there were “major risks” that 2023 would be “his last Christmas.”

Iconic Le Samouraï, Plein Soleil and The Leopard star Delon has been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2019.

Anthony Delon slammed his younger sister Anouchka for keeping he and his brother in the dark about a series of cognitive tests undertaken by Delon in a Swiss clinic from 2019 to 2022, which revealed cognitive degradation.

Delon’s lawyer Christophe Ayela raised the alarm a few days after the Paris Match declaration, saying that Anthony had abruptly withdrawn conventional medical treatment put in place for his father by the Swiss clinic.

“Anthony Delon has decided to treat his father’s illness with fruit juice and vegetables prescribed by a naturopath,” he said.

Anthony’s lawyer and Ayela both wrote to the public prosecutor in the Loire Valley town of Montargis, close to the village of Douchy where Delon resides in a 19th century chateau, asking for him to be placed under legal protection for different reasons.

The legal protection order states that due to the disagreement between Delon’s children, it was necessary to appoint a “neutral and impartial” judicial agent for the protection of adults to assist the actor.

Delon’s children welcomed the order in separate statements.

“If this can help put things straight and prevent lawyers from talking about my father’s illness without even having consulted the files, this medical controversy will end once and for all,” Anthony Delon told the Europe 1 radio network.

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