Stéphane Tapie: his moving secrets about his last words to his father Bernard

In an interview with Gala, which also publishes the good sheets of his next book, Bernard Tapie’s eldest son, Stéphane, talks about the last days before his father’s death.

It is a very touching and intimate Stéphane Tapie who confided in the columns of Gala on newsstands this Thursday, January 5. Bernard Tapie’s eldest son is promoting his new book how to say goodbye to you published on Thursday January 12 by Michel Lafon. The title of the book echoes the death of his father on October 3, 2021 at the age of 78 from stomach cancer.

Bernard Tapie “had the most beautiful death” according to his son Stéphane

More than a year after his disappearance, the death of Bernard Tapie remains a trauma for the older brother of Laurent and Sophie Tapie who were as affected as he was. With our colleagues from GalaStéphane Tapie returned about his father’s last days. The magazine also publishes the good leaves of his book. “We are in October 2021, we all saw that he was waking up less and less, that he was slipping. I wanted to be well, properly dressed to accompany him. My father was in a coma . He died on October 3, 2021, in the morning, surrounded by all his family. That’s what he wanted, he didn’t want to die on a hospital bed and I think he had the most beautiful death.”, can we read. And to add: “For my father, death was a relief, a release. He was a prisoner of his body, of pain. At one point, I wanted to be alone with my dad and just said, ‘It’s okay, don’t worry, I’ll take care of the rest. I’m taking over.'”

“We shared a previously unknown complicity”

In the columns of GalaStéphane Tapie, who knew a rather contrasting relationship with his father to the point of calling him “Tapie” and not “dad”, admitted that his illness brought them closer. “I knew Tapie much more than my fatherhe admits. It was necessary that I take advantage of being with him to create beautiful memories and that we say to each other everything that we had not said to each other. For four months, I was therefore with Tapie every day. (…) At the start, I had to do violence to myself. The first month, there was a lot of discomfort, Tapie was very embarrassed to be diminished. (…) During all these weeks, we shared a hitherto unknown complicity.”he writes in his book.