She was born Arielle Laure Maxime Sonnery in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of Jean-Louis Melchior Sonnery de Fromental, a silk manufacturer, and Françoise Garreau-Dombasle. She descends from French-American immigrants in Mexico under her grandfather's diplomatic tenure. The family's surname was created in 1912, when Dombasle's grandfather René Sonnery (1887–1925), an industrialist from Lyon, married Anne-Marie Berthon du Fromental. Arielle took the pseudonym Arielle Dombasle in memory of her mother who died at the age of 36. She was raised as a Roman Catholic.[1]
Dombasle and her brother Gilbert were raised in Mexico by their maternal grandparents after their mother's death in 1964. She attended the Lycée Franco-Mexicain. She was also raised at Château de Chaintré, the Sonnery family estate near Mâcon, Saône-et-Loire. Her maternal grandfather, Maurice Garreau-Dombasle, a close friend of and advisor to Charles de Gaulle,[2] was a long time commercial attaché for the French Embassy, who resigned from his post on September 3, 1940, declaring that he would "never work 'under German control',"[3] and on June that year was one of the founders of France Forever,[4] had later served as the French ambassador to Mexico. Her maternal grandmother was Man'ha Garreau-Dombasle (née Germaine Massenet, 1898–1999), a writer and poet who translated Rabindranath Tagore's works into French and was a longtime friend of the science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who dedicated his 1972 novel The Halloween Tree to her.
Career
Dombasle embarked on a career as an actress and singer after attending the Conservatoire International de Musique de Paris[5] and further studies in Mexico.[6] Dombasle has appeared in several Hollywood productions, but most of her acting work has been in French, unlike her albums which are mostly in Spanish and English. She directed four films, Les Pyramides Bleues, Chassé-croisé, Opium and Alien Crystal Palace. She once described her own looks as "a Crazy Horse dancing girl".[7]
Arielle Dombasle then released several albums in France; Glamour à Mort!, Diva Latina, Arielle Dombasle by ERA and La Rivière Atlantique with French rocker Nicolas Ker.
Dombasle joined Les Grosses Têtes, a French radio programme, in January 2016.[9]
That same year, Arielle Dombasle released her fragrance, Le Secret d'Arielle, within Mauboussin. The promotional campaign was created by the French artist Leonardo Marcos.
Two years later, in 2020, Arielle Dombasle announced she would be releasing a second joint album with Nicolas Ker, named Empire. The album was supposed to be released on April 24, 2020, but was postponed to June 16, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[11]
In 2023, Dombasle directed and released the movie "Les Secrets de la princesse de Cadignan" based on Honoré de Balzac's Comédie Humaine.
In 2024, Arielle Dombasle released an album entitled Iconics.
Personal life
Dombasle is the third wife of writer Bernard-Henri Lévy. They married on June 19, 1993, at Saint-Paul-de-Vence on the Côte d'Azur where they have a villa. She has two stepchildren, Antonin-Balthazar Lévy and Justine Lévy, a novelist. She was previously married to Dr. Paul Albou, described by Vanity Fair as a "playboy society dentist, 32 years her senior."[6]
In 2009, she signed a petition in support of Roman Polanski, calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl, after Steve Cooley, the then Los Angeles District Attorney, tried to prosecute him.[12]
Dombasle is vegetarian.[13] In 2016, she campaigned against abattoirs (slaughterhouses) for PETA.[13]
^Dombasle's year of birth has been a subject of much debate, and various sources have given dates ranging from 1953 to 1958.
References
^Labadie, Pauline (June 7, 2013). "Val-de-Grâce contre Arielle Dombasle: "Une tempête dans un verre d'eau"". Le Figaro. Retrieved September 30, 2016. L'épouse de Bernard Henri-Lévy, catholique fervente, déclare sur son site internet: «Dès l'aurore de ma vie j'ai connu la prière. C'était un moment de recueillement que je croyais obligatoire. Enfant, je m'y appliquais, et déjà, j'en sentais les bienfaits sans trop savoir pourquoi.»