actress
Michaela May’s moving family history: Her three siblings committed suicide
In her book “Behind the Smile”, Michaela May tells of her three sisters who took their own lives.
© Michaela May / DPA
She carried this secret within her for more than 40 years. Now Michaela May speaks for the first time about her tragic family history: she lost her three siblings by suicide.
She is one of the best-known and most popular actresses in Germany: Michaela May has been a fixture on German television for decades. Viewers know her as a down-to-earth, likeable and fun-loving person.
But behind the radiant Michaela May hides a person who has had to cope with terrible blows of fate. The 69-year-old is now talking about this for the first time in more than 40 years. In the book that will be published next week with the aptly title “Hinter dem Lachen” (Piper, 22 euros), she processes her tragic family history.
In 1974 her brother Karl took his own life at the age of 28. His eldest brother, Hans, followed his death for only three years; he was 34 years old. And in 1982 her younger sister Gundi committed suicide at the age of only 22.
Michaela May kept the secret for a long time
May has remained silent about this until today. Nobody outside of the closest circle of acquaintances knew about it. “I protected the secret to protect my parents,” she says in an interview with “Brigitte”. Her mother died two years ago and Michaela May will be 70 in a month. The actress took this as an opportunity to take stock of her life in her autobiography and to work through the terrible events. The book was like therapy for her, she tells the women’s magazine.
In fact, the Munich native, who was born Gertraud Elisabeth Berta Franziska Mittermayr in 1952, never saw a therapist. She has decided to live to the fullest. It was this exuberant joie de vivre that made her so popular as an actress. Whether as cheeky Susi in Helmut Dietl’s “Munich Stories” or as the patent inspector Jo Obermaier in “Police Call 110”. May also lived privately: She had two daughters, who are now adults, and since 2006 she has been married to director Bernd Schadewald for the second time.
With her book, May wants to give other people hope: Even with such a fate, one can enjoy life. “Like me, in spite of everything, with everything.”
Michaela May: “Behind the smile” will be published next Thursday, February 24th, by Piper Verlag and will cost 22 euros. More under www.piper.de
Do you have suicidal thoughts? Help offers the telephone counseling. She can be reached anonymously, free of charge and around the clock on 0 800 / 111 0 111 and 0 800 / 111 0 222. Also a consultation via email is possible. One List of nationwide help centers can be found on the website of the German Society for Suicide Prevention.
For children and young people is also the number against grief from Monday to Saturday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. – the number is 116 111.