The French journalist and writer Bernard Pivot, 87, spoke about his withdrawal from public life and his state of health with the Journal du Dimanche.
[Mis à jour le 3 avril 2023 à 16h54] Bernard Pivot delivered poignant confidences to the Journal du Dimanche on April 1st. The journalist and presenter of “Apostrophes” returned to it on his withdrawal from public life but also on his state of health. “I remained silent because the evil hit me in the head, seat of the brain and of speech”, he revealed during this exclusive interview. Better then to be silent while waiting for the memory to recharge and for the thought to bloom again.
Bernard Pivot then explains that he gradually withdrew from television and then from Goncourt and his columns written in the JDD to make room for young people, but also for health reasons: “because I was sick, disabled and that I could no longer write as I did for your readers.” The ex-presenter, however, remained brief, without recounting in detail the disease from which he suffers. However, he announces that his “health problems” began in January 2020.
Biography of Bernard Pivot – Bernard Pivot, born May 5, 1935 in Lyon in the Rhône, is a journalist, literary critic and host of cultural programs on television, such as “Apostrophes”, but also on the radio. He is also known for his famous dictations and his unique way of expressing himself. From January 2014 to December 2019, he chaired the Académie Goncourt.
Child of Lyon grocers, Bernard Pivot lived the Second World War in Quincié-en-Beaujolais with his mother. During this event, he mainly reads the dictionary. After studying law, he turned to journalism by enrolling in the Journalist Training Center in Paris in 1955. In 1958, he began his career at the literary Figaro. In 1971, with the disappearance of the weekly, Bernard Pivot became head of the Figaro department. In 1974, he left the newspaper and Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber then offered him a magazine project. A year later, the magazine Lire was born. Between 1974 and 1977, he was a columnist for Le Point and the Sunday Journal. In addition, from 1970 to 1973, Pivot wrote a daily column on Europe 1. He was also on the air on RTL during the 1980s.
Bernard Pivot began his television career in 1967, on New Year’s Eve, to talk about Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan. From April 1973 to November 1974, he produced and hosted the show “Ouvrez les guillemets” on the ORTF. After the disappearance of the channel, he hosts a new program on Antenne 2 “Apostrophes”. From January 10, 1975 until 1990, it was broadcast every Friday evening and lasted 75 minutes. The principle of the show is a debate between Pivot and the guests. Writers are often present there and the success of the program stimulates book sales, to the point of becoming the “reference literary magazine” on French television. The program won two 7 d’or (former ceremony rewarding French television). When the program stopped, Bernard Pivot hosted a new cultural program in 1991, which focused on literary, theatrical and cinematographic news… It was called “Bouillon de culture”. Also rewarded with two 7 d’or, it encountered a drop in audience which marked its end in 2001, after 10 years on the air.
From 2002 to 2005, he hosted a program called “Double je”, the principle of which is to invite foreigners who have chosen to join their original culture, French culture and language. In 2008, Laurence Boccolini and Jean-Pierre Foucault presented the program “Français, la Grande interro!” on TF1. Bernard Pivot is there and plays the referee, explaining the rules of grammar and providing additional information on the answers.
From 1985 to 2005, Bernard Pivot presents “The French spelling championships” and “The world spelling championships”, in co-hosting with Catherine Matausch, then Florence Klein. After a first phase of selection, with texts to be corrected and a questionnaire, the semi-finals take place in each region, with a dictation made by the linguist Micheline Sommant, and a MCQ. The championship ends with a national final, with the contestants who obtained the highest marks. For the latter, it is Bernard Pivot who draws up the dictation texts. These made him famous and he published a book about them: “Les Dictées de Bernard Pivot”, in 2006.
How about trying your luck?
A lover of words and literature, Bernard Pivot is also an author. From 1959 to 2018, he published 21 books, between novels, essays and autobiographies. The subjects vary, ranging from cooking, to sport, to the French language and its background. The journalist is indeed appreciated for the quality of his questions, which are benevolent and simple. In fact, his speech and his knowledge made him famous.
Bernard Pivot has a Twitter account (@bernardpivot1) and really likes this communication tool, which allows him to synthesize his thoughts. Indeed, the journalist tweets once or twice a day and has 1,027,785 subscribers who follow his comments. He sometimes creates controversy with his tweets. This is the case on September 25, 2019, where he launched sexist remarks about the young environmental activist Greta Thunberg. “In my generation, boys sought out little Swedish girls who had the reputation of being less uptight than little French girls. I imagine our astonishment, our fear, if we had approached a Greta Thunberg…“, tweets Bernard Pivot. The flood of reactions was not long in coming and they are all unanimous: Bernard Pivot went too far by attacking a person on the physical, in addition to an autistic minor.
Faced with these reactions, he adds in the afternoon: “Details. I am amazed by the verve, the audacity, the anger, the violence of Greta Thunberg’s remarks at the UN. What she dares is unheard of. Imagine our astonishment, our fear if, in my generation of nice teenagers of the 50s, we had met this furious young Swedish girl“. Contacted by Liberation, the newspaper asks him if he intends to delete his tweet, Pivot responds and justifies himself: “No way. I will not delete it. There are people who don’t like it, but there are also a lot of people who like it.“. He keeps on “What I mean is that I know a lot of people who are not autistic, who would not have the guts, the audacity to stand on the UN podium, as Greta Thunberg did .“, and he ends by saying: “Simply, in my generation, we rather ran the little English girls or the little Swedish girls, rightly or wrongly… I imagined the teenager that I was finding myself in front of this young girl. I would have been confused, I would have been scared“. The journalist may have wanted to pay tribute but it is clear that it was awkward, since for many of his subscribers, it did not pass!
In 2004, Bernard Pivot was elected to the Académie Goncourt and became the first non-writer to join the ranks of the Académie. In January 2014, he became president of the Academy and succeeded the writer Edmonde Charles-Roux. Then, on December 3, 2019, he announced his departure from the presidency on December 31 and will in fact only be an honorary member. In the academy, he imposed himself by establishing new rules, including the fact of being more transparent. Wishing more free time for him, he decides to retire.
During his studies at the CFJ in Paris, Bernard Pivot met Monique Dupuis. They get married and have two daughters: Agnès and Cécile. She is also an author and journalist. She co-wrote with her father the book “Lire!” where they talk about their experiences as readers.