Officially, he is free, Pierre. “Under judicial control until the hearing and with a ban on leaving the establishment where he is. »
No policeman is on duty in front of the room of the addiction service of the Villejuif hospital where he arrived on March 14, two weeks after a stroke of cardiac origin which had sent him to intensive care at the Kremlin-Bicêtre. Before being operated on the week of March 6 at the Plessis-Robinson hospital.
Out of the woods, he remained weakened and had to adhere to a very strict diet: substitution medication, compulsory rest and constant medical supervision with regular blood pressure measurements. “This kind of situation, notes someone close to the case, requires appropriate therapy. Each patient arrives with their own pathologies, their own addictions, and they must be treated one by one. »
Totally addicted to 3-MMC
If Palmade has been a cocaine user for more than thirty years, he became, in two years, completely addicted to 3-MMC, this synthetic drug used in the practice of “chemsex”. The hearings of his two party accomplices made it possible to understand the infernal spiral in which he had locked himself.
Sambou G. was only 32 years old when he crossed paths with the comedian in 2020. Palmade was then a lonely boy, vaguely trying to get out of artificial paradises. Containment will not help him. On the contrary. Leaving his Parisian apartment for his house in Cély-en-Bière, in Seine-et-Marne, the actor plunged into paid sex, obtaining sachets of 3-MMC through Sambou.
Sold at 40 euros per gram, the synthetic drug is easily found on the Internet, it is sometimes delivered by courier to a simple post office box. Palmade practices the slam: he injects the product intravenously or has it injected by Sambou, “if possible between the toes, so that the bites are less visible”.
A descent into hell, from theater to Seine-et-Marne
At that time, the rehearsals of “Assume brothel! », a piece he has put together devilishly well, become complicated, even impossible. The show was launched in August 2020, between two confinements, at the Théâtre du Marais, a small Parisian hall. On good evenings, Pierre is excellent. With this intimate confession, the text tells the life of a certain Pierre who does not dare to confess his homosexuality to his relatives, he moves the public. But on bad days, Palmade doesn’t come.
The recovery, a year later, at the Children of Paradise, another Parisian theater, is even more catastrophic. Wild cancellations, “for medical reasons”, are multiplying, transforming what could have been a beautiful professional rebirth into a personal ordeal. “Pierre has always been endearing but complicated, describes a relative who prefers to remain anonymous. As long as he took cocaine, he managed to manage himself. The “chemsex” took him to another planet. At the beginning, he partitioned quite a bit between the world of entertainment and that of the night. But he gradually abandoned the first for the second, carried away by birds of bad omen. »
In October 2021, as revealed by the “JDD”, Sambou was arrested by the narcotics brigade. Palmade, heard at his request by the police, then admits to being a regular user of 3-MMC, “to unleash himself without shame in the context of homosexual relations”. “I gave him 20 euros more when he stung me well”, he explains to the investigators who seek to trace the path of the substance. He comes out free, but Sambou is given a twelve-month suspended prison sentence accompanied by a ban on seeing the actor.
Sachet of cocaine found in toilet
At the end of 2022, the filming of “La fine Équipe”, a program commissioned from Palmade by France Télévisions, ended in disaster. Supposed to be the captain of the boat, Pierre arrives late, does not recognize his guests, locks himself up with Sambou in his dressing room and seems more disconnected than ever. The promotion turns into a fiasco when, after its passage on the antenna of a Parisian radio station, a sachet of cocaine is discovered in the toilets.
“When we made him understand that the show was in danger of sinking because of him, he took it very badly, says this relative. He saw the time when he would not be paid for his work. Despite everything, Palmade will pocket 170,000 euros for his calamitous performance.
At the beginning of 2023, Pierre Palmade no longer answers text messages or calls
At the start of 2023, Pierre Palmade is therefore an increasingly lonely man. He no longer responds to text messages or calls, even those of his close friends. Sometimes he gives a sign of life, often to say he’s broke and needs the money.
He decides to put his residence in Cély-en-Bière up for sale, estimated at 1.36 million euros. The only way to settle his debts and maintain a semblance of a lifestyle. “If he had had time to conclude the transaction, he could have recovered 500,000 euros, reveals this relative. But the accident of February 10 put an end to the affair. And, since then, many curious people come to see. The visits were therefore stopped. »
A monastic life in Villejuif
For the time being, Pierre Palmade, the driver of the Peugeot 3008 which collided with the Renault Mégane of Yuksel Yakut on February 10, leads a monastic life in Villejuif. His hospitalization is due to end on April 24. “Normally patients are welcomed for two weeks, notes this connoisseur of the file. Pierre Palmade, he will have stayed six weeks. It’s a bit like the taxpayers paid for his rehab. »
No visits were authorized by the health establishment. Even his publicist and former producer were — politely — turned away by security. Pierre Palmade only exchanges with his lawyer, Céline Lasek. There remains the thorny question: what to do with Pierre now that Palmade is supposed to be detoxified?
Where can he go after his hospitalization?
His judicial control prohibits him for the moment from returning to his home in Cély-en-Bière. His Paris apartment? The address is known to all dealers in the capital.
Go to one of his sisters? Claire, to whom he was very close and who managed his affairs, slammed the door of the hospital on the morning of February 12, when she heard him pronounce:
Say, it’s going to be expensive, my first interview.
Pierre Palmade
Hélène, with whom he was angry, is now his only link with his family. It was she who, on February 14, took the liberty of sending the press release in which Pierre Palmade asked forgiveness from the family whose existence he broke. As for Reanne, his mother, she did not take a train from Bordeaux where she lives to come and see him. His home could nevertheless be a new base for the hated actor who, like a child after a big mistake, will have to seek understanding and help from his family. Certainly not in public.
“Pierre has a very high opinion of his talent as an author and comedian, confides this relative. He likes to be a public man, he has always lived like this, he is not the type to leave the stage discreetly. And he will have a hard time understanding that his career is over. Even Bertrand Cantat ended up admitting that sometimes silence is the best option. »
Weight regain and dream of returning to normal
From his room, Pierre Palmade recovered a mobile phone and a television – he who during his stay at the Kremlin-Bicêtre hospital center only had the Gulli channel available. He reads what is written about him, reacts furiously to certain comments, sometimes shows a form of despair and, above all, counts his friends on the fingers of one hand. Muriel Robin and Anne Le Nen have erased him from their lives, just like Michèle Laroque, but he can still rely on Carole Bouquet, a lifelong friend.
The care center nevertheless allowed him to regain weight, to regain a “normal” lifestyle, waking up and eating at fixed times, extinguishing the lights in the evening. For the first time in his life, Pierre Palmade does not know what tomorrow will bring. A trial, that’s for sure. A detour through prison, perhaps. He secretly hopes to return to the light, presenting himself as a new man, rid of his ills as well as his vices, forgiven for a life of excess and disasters. But that’s only in his dreams.