Dalida: her brother Orlando talks about the singer’s unacknowledged pregnancy and her abortion

This May 3, 2022 will be a very special date: it will be 35 years since Dalida died. On the night of May 2 to 3, 1987, the legendary French singer committed suicide in her house at 11 rue d’Orchampt, by overdose of barbiturates, which she swallowed with whiskey, alcohol which accentuates the effect of this type of medicine. Invited on the set of C to You to commemorate this sad date, his brother, Orlando, discussed at length with Anne-Elisabeth Lemoine and her team, this Tuesday, April 12.

And in particular on a very particular subject: a story that remained hidden for many, many years. It was Dalida’s brother himself who revealed the affair. It all started in 1973, when Dalida released one of her flagship songs: “He had just turned 18”. A few years earlier, Dalida, then 34 years old, had just lost the man of her life and met Lucio, a young 18-year-old student from Rome. They lived a brief idyll which will result in the accidental pregnancy of the Diva. Of course, the young man, not wanting a child, asked her to abort clandestinely.

Orlando: “Dalida’s abortion went very badly”

What Dalida accepted. But this song has nothing to do with the real story of the French diva. It is a perfect coincidence, as told by his brother, Orlando, returning to this terrible ordeal experienced by his sister. “When she sang this song, everyone believed it was written thanks to her love with the young man, it was totally a coincidence. You know, there were only two people who knew about this story: me and my cousin Rosie. My mother didn’t know, my brother didn’t know. She didn’t tell anyone she was pregnant. Even the young man never knew. Maybe he found out later when the book came out. But I tell you: he never knew that Dalida was expecting a child.

With those things worked out, Orlando continued: “She had made up her mind that our mother shouldn’t know about it. So every song that can make you think of it is pure chance. The songwriters couldn’t have known. But sometimes, chance does things well. When she left, she whispered to me the things that I could reveal and those that I had no right to say. These were his last wishes. And at that time, when I wrote the book, I had to talk about it because her abortion went very badly. She could never be a mother. I had to write it in the book, but no one knew before.”

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