With her death, actress Nathalie Baye now leaves her daughter Laura Smet orphaned by her parents. Who are the men who shared the star’s life?
Nathalie Baye died on April 17, 2026, the victim of a terrible illness, said her loved ones, including her daughter, actress Laura Smet. The film star leaves behind an exceptional career for which she received no less than 4 Césars. On the private side, she had also lived a rich life.
Her love life dates back to the 1970s. Indeed, during her cinema debut in 1972, at just 24 years old, Nathalie Baye met the man who would become her first great love: the actor Philippe Léotard. Madly in love, he will then leave his wife and children to form a relationship with her. “He was totally out of the norm, out of all the norms. Everything he was, everything he embodied went against everything. No one, except those who knew him very well, can imagine what he brought to people. It opened incredible horizons for me. He was crazy about literature, he made me read it and love it“, she wrote upon her death in Paris Matchto pay tribute to him.
In 1982, after her breakup with Philippe Léotard, the actress met singer Johnny Hallyday on a television set. Although very different, it’s love at first sight after a while! So much so that Nathalie Baye gave birth to their daughter, Laura Smet, in 1983. The couple lives between Creuse and Yvelines. But, in 1986, there was a break. Despite everything, no animosity or resentment.
“Even when separated, they remained very close. Until the end of his life, when he was really not well, he would call her. Because she was telling him the truth, even if he didn’t want to hear it. He was surrounded by people who only went his way. Sometimes he needed to open his eyes“, confided Laura to Paris Matchin 2024. Subsequently, Nathalie Baye had brief romances, notably with Pierre Lescure, then CEO of Canal+, then with the politician Jean-Louis Borloo.
Asked by Gala in 2014, on her stories of the heart, the actress declared: “When we separate, there is not one person responsible even if one of the two, it is true, makes the decision. A story is built by two people and unfortunately falls apart by two people too. I know people who have endured, sometimes at high cost, swallowing not snakes but boas, but who have never separated and have managed to have a fairly good companionship. It also takes courage.”
