Rocker Hallyday’s first wife ‘heartbroken’ at Caribbean burial

Hundreds of thousands of people thronged the centre of Paris on Saturday for his funeral, with at least 12 million people watching the grand ceremonial of the “people’s tribute” to the star live on television.

France has not seen such an outpouring of emotion for a singer since the death of Edith Piaf.

But hours before the burial in a seaside cemetery on the French Caribbean island of St Barts, Hallyday’s first wife Sylvie Vartan said she was heartbroken he was being buried there.

“It is with a broken heart that I must accept the idea that Johnny will be buried today,” the 1960s pop star said in a statement to AFP.

“It is very sad that Johnny will be so long from all of us who loved him so much,” she added.

Many of Hallyday’s mainly working class fans who lined the streets of Paris Saturday were also upset that the singer would be so far away.

Veteran pop star Michel Polnareff, an old friend of the man they called the French Elvis, had earlier said he found it “strange that his fans should be deprived of Johnny” in this way.

– Part of France’s heritage –

“He’s part of our heritage. I find it unthinkable that all those like myself who are inconsolable now should be prevented from paying their respects” at his grave.

Vartan, 73, did not accompany Hallyday’s white coffin to St Barts, though their son David, along with Laura Smet, Hallyday’s daughter with actress Nathalie Baye, will be among the small group of mourners at the graveside.

Hundreds of islanders kept a vigil through the night at a “public wake” for the singer.

Vartan and Hallyday were the golden couple of French pop in the 1960s, but their marriage — which ended in 1980 — was often stormy.

Hallyday attempted suicide in 1966 because he was afraid she was about to leave him.

A leather-clad showman who was almost unknown abroad, the singer died of lung cancer on Wednesday aged 74.

Vartan said that “Johnny will always be in my heart… after 17 passionate years together, I can tell you first love never dies.”

But the Caribbean island’s leader Bruno Magras told AFP that Hallyday had always wanted to be buried there.

His said the singer, who is credited with introducing France to rock ‘n’ roll, told him “several times he wanted to be buried in St Barts”, where the longtime tax exile had a home.

Marie-Helene Delcasse, of the Friends of Johnny Hallyday and Rock ‘n’ Roll fan group, said “it will be difficult for fans to go and see him”.

Another fan, Francois Le Lay, said he understood that five-times-married Hallyday may have wanted privacy, but “we would have preferred if he was buried in Paris. But if Johnny wanted that, we will respect it.”