It has already been a year since the singer Herbert Léonard died. Since then, his widow has sorted things out and made a radical choice: to sell the house in which they built all their memories. She also has to get rid of her late husband’s private collection…
Singer Herbert Léonard died in March 2025, at the age of 80, following a devastating lung cancer. Nearly a year after his death, the magazine France Sunday recently gave news of his widow, Cléo, who shared his life since 1967.
Herbert Léonard: his widow, inconsolable, puts their house up for sale
The one who, in the city, is actually called Chantal Rousselot, is going through a very difficult period of mourning. So much so that the one who lived for almost sixty years with the singer of the hit For pleasure made a radical decision. She will soon part with the house in which they have built their life!
Indeed, since the disappearance of her husband, Cléo – whom the singer had met in Lyon through their common passion, singing – has been living in an apartment in Paris. And so she decided to put their large property in Barbizon, in Seine-et-Marne, up for sale. Currently, the median price for a house in this city is €3,390/m2, report our colleagues from Figaro Immobilier. The sale of the house could therefore bring in a lot of money.
However, the great accomplice of Julien Lepers – who composed the music for his most famous title – and his wife lived the most beautiful moments of their lives there, and regularly welcomed their daughter, named Éléa, born in 1973, and their three grandchildren.
Herbert Léonard: his widow makes a donation to the French state
But the weight of memories has become too heavy for Cléo and the house too big for her, since she has been alone. The artist’s widow, to whom we also owe the song Crazy lovers in duo with Julie Piétri, therefore decided to leave the premises. And she is not only parting with a house but also “of a priceless treasure to which her husband had devoted a good part of his life”. Indeed, the residence contains precious loot: the collection accumulated by Herbert Leonard over the years.
“Passionate about aviation, the singer had in fact put together a rare collection of archives on the history of Soviet fighter planes from the Second World War”specifies France Sunday in its columns. A historical legacy that the artist’s wife – whose posthumous album, I would like to tell you about myselfwas released on October 10 – therefore decided to donate to Defense and the Air Museum as she herself indicated in a publication on Facebook a few weeks ago.
