Hélène Mercier-Arnault may be very fulfilled in her relationship, but she remains quite frustrated by a detail that her famous husband, the boss of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, forbids her…
Hélène Mercier-Arnault has been a united couple with the boss of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, for more than 35 years. And if the concert pianist is delighted with the life she leads with the businessman, there is one thing she cannot do because of her famous husband and which frustrates her somewhat…
Hélène Mercier-Arnault: what her husband forbids her
Very close to the late Karl Lagerfeld, Bernard Arnault’s wife was in regular contact with him until his death in 2019.I felt very empathetic at the time of my father’s death, he was extremely present. He always said he was jealous of musicians. That he was a frustrated musician, but that his mother closed the door on his fingers when he tried his hand at the piano as a child (…) We wrote to each other until the end“, she confided to Gala.
And if the late fashion designer wanted to dress her in Chanel, he knew perfectly well that “that was not possible“at the risk of offending Hélène Mercier-Arnault’s husband. Boss of LVMH, Bernard Arnault notably owns Louis Vuitton, Céline and Dior, all luxury houses which are competitors of Chanel.”I would have liked to wear a Chanel bag, but Bernard made me understand that it would be as if I were performing with a t-shirt bearing the image of another pianist“, she regretted.
Hélène Mercier-Arnault, “wife of”? “You have to be very careful…”
Besides this frustrating detail, Hélène Mercier-Arnault is delighted with the life she leads. “Personally, I have an exciting life between my husband and my job as a musician.“, she confided. Her only regret? Sometimes being reduced to the status of “woman of” in her public life. “You have to impose discipline on yourself to be able to separate things and be very careful: because the fact of being Bernard Arnault’s wife invades everything, transforms the way you look. Whatever the career and merits, there will always be someone who says: ‘Of course it’s thanks to her husband’“, she explained to Figaro.
If she regularly wears creations from the LVMH group to support her husband, she cultivates her own artistic life. She never wanted to take a break from her career for her children. “At no time did I want to stop my profession. I knew that if I stopped, I would lose track of my career.”she assured, determined to remain independent.
