Guest of RTL for the release of her book 'A Queen', Judith Elmaleh, accompanied by her brother Gad Elmaleh, confided frankly about her 'crazy family'. Heavy secrets of which the brother and sister only learned late, and which they evoke today with great emotion.

A queen (Robert Laffont), here is the evocative title of Judith Elmaleh's first novel, a fiction freely inspired by the life of her own grandmother, about a 14-year-old girl forcibly married to her uncle. At the microphone of Amandine Bégot in the morning of RTL , the novelist accompanied by her brother Gad Elmaleh, looks back on her astonishing family revelations.

Judith Elmaleh, Gad's sister, makes revelations about their grandmother

Asked about the characters in her novel, Judith Elmaleh specifies, not without emotion. 'Mimi, it's my grandmother . She was really married at 14. They put a nice dress on her, she was taken to a party, she loved this party. And at the end of the party she said to her mother: 'I would like to go home, I'm a little tired.' She told him no: 'You won't be able to come back, you will stay.' And she stayed there for her whole life. She had gotten married and she hadn't understood that this party was her wedding . ' A few months later, the girl discovers that she is pregnant, without understanding. ' At that time in Morocco, neither his body nor the body of a man was known. ' Especially since Mimi is their grandfather's second wife.

@gadelmaleh and his sister @judithelmaleh guests of @amandine_begot in #RTLMatin : she publishes 'a queen', her first novel... the story of a family secret inspired by their own grandmother (cc @robert_laffont ) pic.twitter.com/N2qWfihSGJ

— RTL France (@RTLFrance) September 22, 2022

Gad and Judith's grandmother, 'a second wife'

' She was a second wife, continues Judith Elmaleh. My grandfather had married a first wife, who was ten years older than him, he was very much in love with her. He had religious permission to take a second wife to procreate. (...) My grandmother served as a surrogate mother to seven children .' As Amandine Bégot explains, Judith and Gad's grandmother was forced to separate from her children at birth. A terrible pain made in the resilience, until the arrival of her fourth child, whom she decides to keep close to her.” In the fourth, which is my father, she changed. She said, 'I'm not going to give that one.' My father lived his childhood between the two mothers, he went from one house to another .'

'We lived in a crazy family', @gadelmaleh and her sister @judithelmaleh guests of @amandine_begot in #RTLMatin

She publishes her first novel entitled 'My Queen' at @robert_laffont pic.twitter.com/YZvuwCc7ZF

— RTL France (@RTLFrance) September 22, 2022

Gad Elmaleh and his crazy family

Raised in taboo, the secret of this double union, convinced that their grandfather's first wife was none other than their great-grandmother, the brothers and sisters willingly admit the complexity of their family history. ' To put things straight, we had lived in a crazy family anyway, s'amuse Gad Elmaleh . My grandfather married a woman, who said to his niece, 'Come and marry my husband.' For me this woman was my great grandmother, when not at all, she was just my grandmother's aunt . If there are any questions, you write to us ,” adds the 51-year-old comedian.

A grandmother... feminist?

Behind the romantic story, the resilience of a woman, the grandmother of Judith Elmaleh and her brother Gad. A feminist before their time by their own admission, as Gad explains with a touching anecdote. ' One day, I come home from school and to please her, as one sometimes thinks to please people, I say to her: 'You know one day Mimi, I would marry someone who like you will make dumplings, like you will make couscous...' She looked at me and said to me in Judeo-Arabic: 'Are you looking for a wife or an employee', squeezing my arm .' ' My grandmother was never free, but she gave us strength and freedom, says his sister Judith. (...) She allowed us not to be like her . '

Source journaldesfemmes.fr