He is certainly the most discreet of the clan: Roman de Kermadec, Jane Birkin’s adored grandson, has rarely spoken about his famous family.
Roman de Kermadec’s life is far from being a long, quiet river. Already an orphan – he lost his father, Pascal de Kermadec, when he was 4 years old, then his mother Kate Barry – he also brutally faced the death of his grandmother, the famous Jane Birkin, which occurred in July 2023 Very rare in the media, someone who dreams of being a professional musician – his grandfather was the composer John Barry – has agreed to speak unvarnished in the pages of. Gala.
“I have to revive it” : Roman de Kermadec’s fight for his mother Kate Barry
Asked about the painful episodes of his life, Roman de Kermadec does not make tongues. Particularly on the sudden departure of his mother, the photographer Kate Barry, who disappeared in 2013 after a fatal fall from the fourth floor of her building in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. A death which, he assures, is not necessarily accidental in his eyes. “But we’ll never know. That day, I was filming and I felt really bad, like I sensed something was happening…”he slips, resigned.
Himself the father of a little boy born in June 2024 with his partner Hortense Gélinet, he knows the importance of family and transmission. Roman de Kermadec was preparing a documentary film about his late mother, a photographer, with the help and support of Jane Birkin – a bit like Charlotte Gainsbourg did with Jane – but the project was in trouble. “My grandmother was supposed to do the voiceover but she left too soon. I don’t know yet if this documentary will see the light of day…“
Kermadec’s novel linked to his grandmother: “She was like a second mother to me…”
The 37-year-old young man, however, carried out another project: a photo exhibition entitled Interstices: Kate Barry and the landscapeat the Pavillon Carré de Baudouin in the 20th arrondissement of the capital. “It’s my legacy, and I must bring it back to life through these exhibitions. His work really deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. As long as I’m here, I’ll bring it to life as best as I can.”he says.
Questioned by Gala on the mother that Kate Barry was to him, Roman de Kermadec responded straight away: “She performed, despite her problems. I think she got clean for me. She had me, she went to rehab and then she founded her own center, La Maison de Kate, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in October. She was skinned alive. Dogs don’t make cats”.
A reference to the fact that he himself had problems with drugs. “Ithere is a breeding ground (…) all this makes me a good candidate for excessive consumption of alcohol, drugs and what goes with it. At first it seemed rock’n’roll, cool. And I thought I would find my freedom. I quickly saw that it was a prison“, he had already confided to Paris Matchin 2023.
