Charlotte Rampling - Personal Life

Personal Life

One of the most traumatic events in Charlotte's life occurred in 1966, when she was 20 years old. Her elder sister Sarah killed herself after giving birth prematurely and losing her child. Charlotte was devastated by this loss, which she experienced as an abandonment by her sister. She and her father lied to her mother, telling her that Sarah had died of a stroke. Charlotte seemingly overcame this trauma and was able to continue acting. Many years later she made a film in which her character was named Sarah (see above).

In 1972, Rampling married the actor and publicist Bryan Southcombe. They were widely reported to be living in a ménage à trois with a male model, Randall Laurence, and had one child, Barnaby Southcombe (who is now a successful television director) before divorcing in 1976. In 1974, Rampling was quoted by the syndicated columnist Earl Wilson as saying: "There are so many misunderstandings in life. I once caused a scandal by saying I lived with two men I didn't mean it in a sexual sense We were just like any people sharing a flat." In 1978, Rampling married the French composer Jean Michel Jarre and had a second son, magician David Jarre. She also brought up stepdaughter Émilie Jarre, now a fashion designer. The marriage was publicly dissolved in 1997 when she learned from tabloid newspaper stories about Jarre's affairs with other women and had a nervous breakdown. She has been engaged to Jean-Noël Tassez, a French communications tycoon, since 1998. On 6 April 2009, it was reported by The Daily Mail that Rampling had hired lawyers to try to block the publication of a biography about her written by a close friend.