“I’m not demanding anything from him, but you can’t accuse me of being a fraud” – Who was Alain Delon’s alleged son, Ari Boulogne?

News of Ari Boulogne’s death hit the media the other day, and it seems that the man who died at the age of 60 was best known for Alain Delon he did not admit it to his son. The circumstances of his death are not yet clear, Ari’s partner was taken into custody, accused of manslaughter and failure to render assistance, in addition to drug possession and drug trafficking. Ari’s life almost predestined his death, in which it seems that drugs also played a prominent role: he was born into the underground art world by a legendary actor, which sealed his fate.

The illegitimate son

Originally named Christian Aaron Päffgen, he was born in 1962 from the short-lived relationship of German-born singer Christa Päffgen – stage name Nico – and French actor Alain Delon. The actor denied paternity, but he admitted that he had a brief relationship with Ari’s mother, a top model, singer, actress, muse of the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed nicknamed “punk Garbo”.

When the boy was 18 years old, he also initiated a paternity suit, but the French court dropped the case on the grounds that Delon’s official residence was in Switzerland at the time. After that, Ari said the following about Delon: “I’m not demanding anything from him, but he can’t accuse me of being an impostor, because then he’d have to prove I’m not his son and get a DNA test done.”

The boy adored his mother, who, although she appears to be a loving parent based on the recollections, maternal responsibility was not her forte. She allegedly took LSD during her pregnancy and took the child with her in the bohemian, underground art world. This is how Ari spent his childhood in New York with his mother, in Andy Warhol’s Factory, as the mascot of the Velvet Underground. At the age of four, he drank the leftover booze of Bob Dylan, John Cale and Paul Morrissey and swallowed amphetamine pills, mistaking them for candy – at this time he also contracted hepatitis. Ari became Warhol’s youngest star when he starred with Nico in 1966 The Chelsea Girls in the movie.

Adoption and abuse

Alain Delon’s mother, Edith Boulogne, finally saved the boy from this world because, unlike her son, she admitted that Ari was her grandson. She took the boy in and officially adopted him with her second husband – that’s when Ari’s name was Boulogne. The grandmother spoke about Nico and Ari in an interview like this: “Think about it, it was so small [Ari]. Before we took him, he dragged him everywhere [Nico]. He ate nothing but French fries at train stations, hotels, and airports. They lived like vagabonds. He came to her once in three years. He brought her something from America. Guess what? An orange. My husband and I looked at each other speechlessly. We took the orange and thought he really wasn’t like other people… but I still liked him. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.”

Of course, Ari did not remember this event as an excuse, according to her, she lived happily with her mother “until my mother could no longer take care of me because of her work; he had to work day after day for pennies. He got five dollars a day for a gig, so he couldn’t take care of me anymore. He called my grandmother, who came to New York for me.”

Ari was raised by his grandmother until Stevan Marković, Alain Delon’s bodyguard, was murdered in 1968, which made the grandparents afraid that Ari could be kidnapped by murderers, so they sent the boy to a boarding school. He spent nine years in a strict Catholic school, where, according to the man’s recollections,

Although she returned to her grandmother in her teens – who, according to Ari, always hid her when someone came to the house, she hid her existence so much – but she ran away at the age of 17 and joined Nico, traveled the world, accompanied her mother on tours and immersed herself in the art world. This was another seal on his fate, because it was then that he got used to heroin with the help of his mother. Five years later, on July 8, 1988, Nico fell off his bike after a sunstroke in Ibiza, was taken unconscious to the Nisto hospital in Cannes, where he died of a stroke. After that, Ari spent most of his life in rehabs and psychiatric hospitals.

Christa Päffgen at the Opera, 1956. (Photo: ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Christa Päffgen alias Nico, Ari’s mother (Photo: GAB Archive/Redferns)

Christa Päffgen (Photo: Fiona Adams/Redferns)

Nico, Ari’s mum at the Carnaby Street Shop (Photo: Fiona Adams/Redferns)

Andy Warhol and Mick Jagger (right) at the launch party for the Rolling Stones’ ‘Love You Live’ album in 1977 (Photo: Richard E. Aaron/Redferns)

Andy Warhol, actress Veronica Lake, model Candy Darling and Paul Morrissey at photographer Jack Mitchell’s party in 1971 (Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images)

Editor Bob Colacello, model Jerry Hall, Andy Warhol, singer Debbie Harry, author Truman Capote and jewelry designer Paloma Picasso at the Studio 54 party (Photo: Robin Platzer/Getty Images)

Gerald Malanga, Andy Warhol and Lou Reed at Salvation, a West Village nightclub (Photo by Thomas Monaster/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

Nico’s performance (Photo: Kerstin Rodgers/Redferns)

Love never forgets

At the age of 38, in Paris, he decided to write a book about his relationship with his mother L’Amour N’Oublie Jamais (Love never forgets) with title. Her decision coincided with the birth of her son – she has two children: son Charles in 2000 and daughter Blanche in 2006. He intended the book as a tribute to his mother’s memory. At that time, he took his mother’s last name as his stage name and worked as an actor under the name Ari Päffgen, for example with Isabelle Adjani in La Repentie in the movie.

THE L’Amour N’Oublie Jamais in the book, Ari recounted his own chaotic life, dominated by the absence of a father. On this occasion, he was invited to Tout le monde en parle (Everybody’s Talking About It) program, where Thierry Ardisson conducted a major interview with him, asking him not only about the book, but also about Delon. In connection with the publication of the book, it was revealed that Ari still hoped that Delon would admit it to his son: “I am often told that I look like Alain Delon. It also happens to me on the street, but more so with taxi drivers. (…) Maybe I’ll hear from him in six months, when he’ll have time to digest it [a könyv megjelenését]” Ari said.

The few interactions he had with Alain Delon were only disappointing for the young man at the time. One meeting at the notary’s after his foster father’s death, then a second at his grandmother’s. It was the latter “my most intense meeting with him Ari said. – He’s such a good actor that he ate his cake first, turned around so no one could see him eat it, then he took me back to Paris and patted me on the shoulder and said:

Ari couldn’t even respond well to Delon’s words at that moment, but later, during the interview, he asked Ardisson what he would say if Delon were standing in front of him, to which he replied: “You don’t scare me, Alain. And I would throw down my gloves if it were possible to duel today, as in the 19th century, because what he did is unacceptable.” Ari immediately added that he would be able to forgive his father despite all this, because he is not vindictive in nature: “You will have my forgiveness.”

Ari was the illegitimate boy whose entire life was largely determined by the fact that Alain Delon did not recognize him as his son. The farewell can’t be from anyone other than his mother, Nico Ari’s song song he wrote for his son.

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