Even before Valérie Bègue entered the life of Camille Lacourt, he knew that they would live a romance. On the evening of the Miss France 2008 election, in front of his television, the Olympic champion affirms: "There is no point in watching the end of the election, she will be Miss France, and she is also the woman of my life", as he revealed to Sept à Huit in 2019. Love at first sight was immediate. But he had to be patient, since their meeting only occurred three years later. "She had seen me on TV too and what is funny is that she had said the same thing to her friends when talking about me, that I was the man of her life. So a happy coincidence and a beautiful love story that was born", confided the swimmer with a smile.

However, after a marriage and the birth of their daughter, Jazz (now aged nine), the two lovebirds separated. A very complicated period for Camille Lacourt, who has somewhat sunk. "I was unhappy. She was unhappy. I got out of it, but not my couple," he lamented in his autobiographical book Fifty Shades of Blue. While he is now happily married with Alice Detollenaere and they are the parents of a little Marius (seven months), Camille Lacourt returned unvarnished to his painful separation with the mother of his eldest.

Camille Lacourt came close to depression

“The separation with the mother of my daughter was very violent for me”, he loose in front of the cameras of Kool Mag this Wednesday, January 26. And to estimate: "There was a month when I think I touched depression". If his friends came to his house to try to comfort him, he preferred to drown himself in alcohol. "I was drinking beer after beer for three or four days. I really needed to sleep, to drink beers. Not to talk," he explains. But no question of diving. Camille Lacourt quickly said to himself that he had to "stop otherwise we won't get out of it!". "My friends were waiting for it to pass... After a week, I said to myself: 'You are lucky to have the sport to get your head out of the water, take it!'", explains l 36 year old man. Especially since at that time, he was not yet qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games. A goal to achieve which therefore allowed him to get up and focus solely on his sport. "When it ended, I wasn't even qualified. You had to qualify first. It was the first stress! In swimming, you only have one chance...", recalls -he. If he did qualify, unfortunately, Camille Lacourt left Rio empty-handed.

Failing to have perfectly succeeded in their couple, the former lovers can boast of having succeeded after the separation. Now, Camille Lacourt and Valérie Bègue seem closer than ever. Better still, while they have each rebuilt their lives, their companions are fully integrated into this blended family. As proof, pictures that attest to the complicity between Valérie Bègue and Alice Detollenaere, for example. A balance that suits them perfectly, and which makes Jazz happy.

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