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Karl's image was iconic and he knew it.

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.BZ

He had to invent this personality,

and so he played with that.

[pensive music]

You recognize the man with the ponytail,

the glasses, and the collar.

You could even just have those three elements

and it works.

Karl is a [bleep] icon.

And he'll always be an icon.

[Karl]: My job is to make-believe.

But I have to be careful, because you know

I can turn myself into a cartoon.

You have to sell, you have to kill yourself,

you have to destroy yourself. Because then, I can rebuild.

As the world reacts to the news that fashion icon

Karl Lagerfeld has died, questions are being asked

as to where his $200 million fortune will go.

Lagerfeld told an interviewer

that he would be giving his riches

to his pet companion, among others,

that this cat has a lifestyle to maintain.

[narrator]: Designer Karl Lagerfeld

was one of the most flamboyant

and recognizable figures in fashion.

And one of the most mysterious.

His influence was immeasurable.

From the Chanel catwalk to the high street,

he made fortunes for himself...

[buzzing]

...and the corporations behind him.

His extravagance was legendary.

But who was the real Karl Lagerfeld?

He said often, though,

he was like a marionette.

Like a cartoon.

But he knew this marionette he was creating

was to hide something.

[narrator]: This is a story with unique access

to his inner circle,

many talking for the first time

to reveal the true face

of the man behind the sunglasses.

[photographers shouting]

[theme song]

You know, whatever you did in fashion, who cares?

I'm very, very much against

what all the designers do now...

[muttering]

...that make retrospectives.

This, I think, is the unhealthiest thing

in fashion ever.

Who wants to know that you are there

for 40, 30, 25 years?

And then, they do it again. They did it for the 20 years,

they did it for the 25 years, they'll do it for the 30 years.

I mean, it's like going to your own funeral.

I mean, who cares? In fashion, nobody

wants your past, huh?

What's interesting is to be part of the moment

and to be part of tomorrow.

But certainly not of something that's over.

[soft bass music]

The passing of Karl Lagerfeld

at the age of 85 leaves a hole in the world of fashion.

Simply put, he was the most prolific and influential

designer of his time.

To many people, Karl Lagerfeld

was the last iconic designer of his generation,

and his death marks the end

of an era across the fashion world.

[Françoise]: Après moi, le déluge.

He always said, "No, I don't want anything for my funeral."

No ceremony, nothing.

He refuses that.

He does not want to think he disappears.

Right. That's it.

He just continued to do the collection up to the end.

I mean, who does that?

I swear we called him the Kaiser.

King Karl.

[narrator]: All the intimates were there.

Sébastien the bodyguard.

One of Karl's best friends, Princess Caroline of Monaco.

Male models Baptiste and Brad, along with his sons,

and Karl's godsons, Jameson Karl and Hudson.

They've all gathered to honour Lagerfeld's legacy.

But behind the scenes, there's an unspoken question:

who did he leave his money to?

No one knows who will get what,

and whether his famous cat Choupette

could get the lion's share.

[jazzy music]

If you have children,

everything is written in the law,

so you don't have to do anything.

But if you don't have children, you'd better have a will.

[interviewer]: And in Karl's case, there is a will.

Yes. I think it's public information.

I will not tell you what is inside.

[interviewer]: Do you know?

Of course I know.

[laughs]

[interviewer]: Could you tell me anything, Celine?

You can ask somebody else. [laughs]

[photographers shouting]

He never talked about his debts.

He never talked about money.

He never talked about what he's going to do with the money.

Of course, we can see he lived like a king.

His paintings, his apartment, his house, you know,

there were so many things.

But I don't know what's happened with his money.

[curious music]

Sébastien?

[Carine]: I heard that there was a testament,

and the names of seven people,

but we don't hear really what's going to happen.

[narrator]: One person who knows more than most

is Lagerfeld's right-hand man and bodyguard.

And now, you really need a wetsuit.

[interviewer]: Yeah, you need a wetsuit today.

Yeah.

It's better. - To keep fit.

I try! [laughs]

But I'm not bad for 47, nearly 48.

[bright orchestral music]

I was paid to keep his secrets,

to make everything going well.

My mission was to make his life

going to a tapis volant, you know?

[interviewer]: A flying carpet. - A flying carpet.

That means, everything has to be done

or run to not have problems.

[whistles]

[classical music]

He believed in me.

To be still there, you know, after 20 years.

To be the last one close to him.

Because he didn't want someone else at this moment.

For me, Saint-Tropez was for rich people.

I had nothing to do there. I was not coming from that.

Until the times I went there with Karl.

And Karl, he asked, "You should have a house there."

Na-na-na-na... I said, "But Karl, yes,

I would love to have a house there,

but how would you want me to do? It's not possible for me."

Tu vois? He said, "Yes, look for a house,

I will help you." You know?

And, like, it's like that, and I have my house.

[interviewer]: So, he was very generous?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

He was generous with everyone. All the people around him.

- Even my servants, so... - Yeah.

They are spoiled like family.

They get apartments, houses, cars, and everything.

You know, they do more for me than anybody else.

I, except sketching, don't know to do anything.

I'm totally stupid. I don't know how to cook,

I don't know how to clean, I don't know nothing.

[interviewer]: But tell me about, then, the will.

He put some different names,

and he did 30%, 20%,

20%, 20% for one,

and the rest for just three people or four people.

Like, that's it.

[interviewer]: And are you one of those names?

Yeah. Like Baptiste and Brad.

[curious music]

Brad was very close to Karl.

And after Brad, it was Baptiste, you know.

I think Karl has a special link between them, you know,

that I didn't have with Karl. It's something different.

They were more close in a few years

than people who were there already for 40 years.

[narrator]: In fashion circles,

they would be known as Karl's muses,

a source of inspiration.

Often, they would all appear on the runway together.

But the closest to him were Baptiste and Brad.

[♪]

Nowadays, Brad Kroenig and his wife Nicole

are real estate agents in Florida,

where they live with their sons Hudson and Jameson Karl.

All right, Jame, have a good game.

Yep. [Nicole]: Have a good game, buddy.

First time I met Karl was in Paris,

at a private airport,

and I was doing a shoot with Karl,

I think it was me and a couple other male models.

So, in fact, you met him on the private plane.

Yeah. I think that's where I did meet him.

And we all flew down to South France

to Biarritz, where his house was.

[lounge music]

He had a huge compound, I think,

of like four or five different houses on it.

You gotta take a golf cart from one house to the other.

And he had this beautiful pool,

all black-slated underground. It was really cool.

We did a shoot there the next day.

And we had an instant connection

because the other two male models,

I think he photographed them for five minutes,

and he shot me for like 12 hours.

So, right from the get-go, we had a great connection,

from model to photographer.

[interviewer]: And can I ask a direct question?

He left a will. Can you tell anything about that?

Yeah, I'm not sure of any of that stuff, really. Um...

He never really talked about death.

He never really did.

I think it was kind of a negative topic,

so he just didn't wanna bring it up.

There was never really any negative talk about anything.

He was always upbeat, positive.

It's hard to do. But somehow, he got away with it, you know.

- Oh, Mr. Hudson. - Ah!

[Karl]: Mr. Hudson, how are you?

[speaking French]

[overlapping chatter]

[narrator]: Hudson, Brad's elder son, was Karl's godson.

Oh, it's for Choupette.

You have to give it to you and Choupette.

You come to the house and give it to Choupette yourself, huh?

Huh? Huh? It's okay. - Hmm. Yeah.

- Do you like that? - Oh. I like that, yes.

That's for me. I got it.

Ritz Kids? Oh, you got it in the Ritz.

- Yeah. That's from hotel. - Yes, I know. Yeah.

[laughing]

You have to say thank you to this lady called Celine.

- Okay. - Celine. Her name is Celine.

Ask for Celine.

[rhythmic music]

[narrator]: But then, a rival

for Karl's attention appeared on the scene.

Today, Baptiste Giabiconi

is preparing for a raunchy photoshoot.

- Helen, how are you? - Good, oh!

Nice to meet you. Good to see you, eh.

Good to see you too!

- You too. - It's been ages.

Hi, everybody! Hi, hi.

Take it off...

Right, yeah. Check the hair.

You really are beautiful.

[chuckles]

Yeah, that's great. Beautiful.

[♪]

[in French]

Cool, okay! Yay! [chuckles]

Cool!

Okay.

Oh, that's very cool.

Rockstar.

[narrator]: And then, another beautiful creature,

who was to win Karl's heart, came on the scene.

[jazzy music]

One day, Baptiste, he asked Karl to keep his cat

during his holidays.

And we were all, like, shocked!

He had the cat for the Christmas...

the New Year holidays.

[♪]

And after that, that starts to be, like, crazy.

[chuckles] Crazy.

[Karl]: I never thought that I could fall in love

with an animal like this.

A friend of mine, "I'm leaving for two weeks.

Could you keep it for two weeks?"

When he came back, I said, "I'm sorry, Choupette is mine.

I don't give Choupette back."

And Choupette became a world-famous stallion.

She has her own fortune from things she did in Japan,

and in Germany, for cars and things like this.

And wherever I go, somebody, children,

telling me, "How is Choupette?"

[rhythmic music]

[narrator]: Karl turns Choupette into a superstar,

with an estimated fortune of 3 million euros.

Considerably more than many supermodels.

We've got some products of Karl Lagerfeld.

That's only a sample.

[interviewer]: There really are a lot.

Hundreds. Yeah.

This is, I mean...

This is a little wallet representing Choupette.

There is, um... what do we have?

We have... a little figurine down by Doki Doki.

[interviewer]: Is that Japanese? - Uh, I think so, yes, yes, yes.

Apparently, that's worth a fair bit.

- Oh, really? - Yes.

"The Private Life of a High-Flying Fashion Cat."

[interviewer]: You were Choupette's lawyer?

No. Under French law, um...

the image right of an animal belongs to the owner.

[interviewer]: And can't own a pet

if you're dead?

[laughs]

That's a good start. [laughs]

[Lucas]: Choupette Lagerfeld was very important to people.

They wanted to know what was happening to Choupette

after the death of Mr. Lagerfeld.

[interviewer]: The will is a rather complicated thing,

isn't it?

It's very complicated. That...

I probably don't have all the answers,

and I don't have all the answers,

and I think we'll know once it's concluded.

And people will speak out.

Right now, it's very secretive and very closed. Closed doors.

[interviewer]: You know, in James Bond...

[laughs]

Should we go and see her? - I think we should go see her.

Yeah, yeah, let's go.

[jazz music]

[indistinct chatter]

You have to see her. You would fall instantly in love with her

because she's unbelievable.

With those huge sapphire eyes, very coquette,

and she's overgroomed and everything.

She's like a chic lady, like a Catwoman,

with a personal maid.

[interviewer]: Ah, la voilà! - Voilà! Ma Chouchou!

[indistinct chatter in French]

[♪]

And she gives something magical that, I understand,

the Egyptians from

4,000 years before Jesus Christ,

for them, the cat was the most important animal.

I understand that.

And she gives energy, it's very strange.

When I have her next to me,

I feel like a telephone that is recharged.

[pensive music]

[narrator]: Choupette's former home,

overlooking the river Seine,

where Karl lived for 11 years,

above his ever-curious first-floor neighbour.

The shutters were never opened.

[interviewer]: Really? - Never opened.

Day and night, closed like that.

The lights were on 24 hours a day,

every day. [interviewer]: Wow.

Whether he was there or if he wasn't there.

And the other windows give onto the Seine.

The whole looks of Louvre, the... you know.

Paris. [interviewer]: Why don't you?

Well, because he didn't...

He didn't leave me the apartment!

[laughs]

[interviewer]: To whom did he leave the apartment?

Nobody knows. It's a big, big, thing.

The apartment is sealed.

The only thing set up and taken out are the books.

That's the only thing they took out.

Here we go again.

They're clearing Karl's apartment.

God knows what that is.

I heard it was books, but I'm not sure.

I don't think it looks like books.

They're here for about two weeks, I was told.

I'm an antique dealer.

And I met Karl when I opened my first shop in 1979.

And then, I never saw him again.

Then, I moved in the building.

I didn't know he lived here.

And one day, I was coming out, and he said,

"Juan, hi! How are you? What are you doing here?"

And I said, "Well, I just moved here."

And he had a lot of people who worked for him.

He had a chef who cooked for everybody.

He had two...

well, he had Sébastien who was his right-hand man.

[classical music]

He was very nice.

Always very polite, always very nice.

Very friendly.

[narrator]: Sébastien first met Karl as a 15-year-old,

on a job at his school holidays with his stepfather,

who was an antique furniture mover.

At the time, Karl was living here,

a private house in the centre of Paris

known as Hotel Pozzo.

When we arrived there, I was thinking I was arriving

to the Château de Versailles.

For me, this kind of thing was like... never seen.

I was, like, very young, full of life,

and I was asking everything in the house.

We were doing moving things, but he was next to us,

I was asking about the... history of the furniture,

about the history of the book, about the... you know?

And that was making a lot of fun for Karl.

And, well, I became not close,

but we had something together, you know?

[narrator]: Some of Karl's greatest extravagances

were his homes

and their priceless 18th-century furniture.

What is it about the 18th century?

One day, I saw in a gallery,

when I was four or five years old, a painting,

depicting the dining room in the château de Sanssouci.

And I saw that it is a way life should look,

and that I was born too late.

I like the style. I like the design of the houses.

I like the concept of their lives and the spirit.

[narrator]: Artist Patrick Hourcade first meet Karl

in 1976.

[Patrick]: I help him a lot

to discover all this 18th-century period.

That's why we have a fantastic relationship

from the beginning.

[interviewer]: Patrick, what do we have here?

Um...

It is a bedroom, as you see. [chuckles]

And this bed has a long story.

This is an 18th-century military bed.

[interviewer]: For how many people?

One. [interviewer chuckles]

It's a king size for single.

[wheezing laugh]

[interviewer]: Was that appropriate to Karl?

And Karl was sleeping always alone.

And I was sleeping always alone in another bedroom.

The second thing, which is important,

is the bookcase you see there.

Not because the furniture, but because what goes over.

In there, I hide... not hide.

I keep the ashes

of the mother of Karl during two years.

[interviewer]: So, that's where the ashes of Karl's mother...

When I decide to divorce with Karl,

I give back the ashes.

And I wrote to Karl very strictly, and I said,

"Karl, this is the ashes of your mother.

I hope you'll be very happy now."

And he sends me back by fax nine pages,

telling me that he will be never happy.

And he was very disappointed

about, you know, our relationship.

So... It was...

I kept the letter. It was between crying,

and nostalgia of the past.

[classical music]

No, I had a nice childhood

in a place when the world was not that great.

Nothing I can say against.

I'm not still recovering from an unhappy childhood, no.

I never played with children.

I only was sketching and reading.

I was on the best of terms with my father,

and even better terms with my mother.

[narrator]: Karl's older sister Christiane

left Germany in her early 20s for America, where she settled,

and had her first child, Caroline.

They're both standing outside.

Their eyes are like this. [chuckles]

"What are you doing?"

She's already texting me. "Can't you call me?"

[interviewer]: Oh, really? About us being here?

Yeah.

[interviewer]: Small town. Everybody knows everything.

Everybody knows everybody.

That is a studio picture of Karl and Christiane.

I think she was a tom boy.

She did describe getting in trouble with her mother a lot.

And he was the favourite.

[narrator]: Caroline first met her uncle in 1974,

when he paid an imperial visit.

We lived in this grey house. [interviewer]: Ah.

And that was our driveway.

There was a fence, so it was narrow.

The limo pulled up and took up the entire driveway.

And all our little children in the house and my three brothers

and myself ran out to see what the deal was!

A limo in this neighbourhood had never been seen before.

Never.

He was dressed so elegantly.

And he had a black beard

and jet-black hair and talked so fast,

my mother was so happy to see him,

and my father was, you know, bustling about.

And here's a picture of us just googled-eyed.

[chuckles] There's my uncle.

There's me. My younger brother.

And I know that we were just staring at what he was wearing.

He had on wool trousers, that wool wide leg,

and really highly cuffed

and, like, clothes we'd never seen before.

So, I was 13, maybe 14.

My brother was 12 or 13,

and terribly dressed in the 70s,

wearing polyester, and we're fat Americans.

[chuckles]

He had dinner with us, and then,

he asked my parents if my brother Karl and I

could come and visit for the summer in Paris.

And of course, we were jumping up and down, and...

"Please, please, please!"

[jazzy music]

[narrator]: Fashion mecca Paris

had lured Karl from Hamburg 25 years earlier.

At only 21, Karl won the prestigious

Woolmark Prize for coat design.

In the same year that Yves Saint Laurent, only 18,

won the prize for dress design.

They were to become the two most influential

designers of the age,

and bitter rivals in both work, and later, love.

[Colombe]: It's a portrait of my grandmother

by Marie Laurencin. But also, Marie Laurencin,

at that period, like many women,

like the Bloomsbury, my English grandmother was more Bloomsbury,

they also had affairs with women,

so it's a sort of family portrait.

[interviewer]: And Karl was interested in buying it?

Well, Karl asked me if I still had it.

He never said... he would never say "buy."

That's Karl.

Very young.

And that's me.

We had a fight. [interviewer]: Ah.

- Yeah, we had a fight. - What was that about?

Saint Laurent.

[both laughing] - Explain.

I was wearing suits, and not...

I mean, I used to dress in Saint Laurent.

What that a fatal error from his point of view?

Well, at some times, maybe it wasn't very intelligent

of myself to be like that.

Still, we didn't speak together for a long time.

Then, when I took over Vogue,

we laughed and we laughed, and we said,

"Why didn't we see each other for all that time?

It's ridiculous."

[percussive jazz music]

[narrator]: Meanwhile, Karl had been enhancing

his reputation for inventive and exciting design,

working for some of Paris's top couture labels,

and busting a few taboos in the process.

When I started working with Karl,

I was 20 like that. 23. [interviewer]: Ah.

I was like a strange person.

Alors, this is a portrait that he did of me that I like.

Like a sphinge or faune.

And he called it "Le bel indifférent" after Cocteau.

[interviewer]: Do you recognize yourself?

I was like that, yeah

And I like myself to be like that.

Unfortunate it's no more.

I thought actually, when I met him, that he was Italian.

He had long, curly, black hair.

I thought he was an Italian gigolo.

[interviewer chuckles] Because he was so chic,

you know, for the time. - Did you tell him that?

I told him that, of course. And he loved it.

He thought that it was very amusing.

[soft jazz music]

[narrator]: In the early 70s,

Karl's eye was caught by a person

who was soon to become his muse.

[Gilles]: Jacques de Bascher was a young man in Paris.

He was dying to meet Karl.

I met him in a party in Paris,

and I introduced him to Karl.

The image of Jacques de Bascher pleased Karl.

He likes images, Karl.

[interviewer]: By that, do you mean not just the way

he looked, but what he represented?

Yes, also.

This is naughtiness and his nightlife,

crazy nightlife,

as Karl didn't go out at night.

He was the good boy at school, the first of the class.

Very serious.

But he found attractive people who were the opposite.

Exactly. Exactly. The more perverse...

[bossa nova music]

The cushion was a friend of mine who gave it to me

and I think it's brilliant. [wheezing laugh]

[interviewer]: The chairs all look very comfy.

They are. I'm a very comfortable man.

Tell me about Jacques.

I only met him once,

and I thought he was so seductive.

But... danger.

So, I never, I never...

I never went there.

Why "danger"?

Oh, he had those two men at the same time.

[♪]

[narrator]: Jacques had also caught the eye

of Karl's rival, Yves Saint Laurent.

[interviewer]: Sort of a complicated relationship.

Oof! I imagine. Yeah, I guess so.

But I think that Saint Laurent was more in love with Jacques.

And I think Karl was more intellectually involved.

One version of the story is that Jacques was sort of

the love of Karl's life.

Yes, apparently, he was.

But the love of... I don't know how Karl loved.

I mean, he was such a remote person.

Even though he may have been very nice with his friends

and all the things, but he was, I think,

probably a very remote and private person.

Karl and Jacques was absolutely

the perfect love story,

and the perfect impossible story.

Karl had a problem with sex. He can't have sex.

And Jacques was crazy about sex.

That's why he let Jacques going everywhere.

[chuckles] Within many attractions for him.

I'm a kind of voyeur,

you know. I want to watch everything.

What's going on in the world, on TV, in the street,

in the newspaper, I'm a paper freak.

I love newspapers. So, I'm much more informed

than people think.

And yes, I don't go out a lot, nearly never.

Even-- - Why not?

Because I have too many things to do and I want to do them.

You know, there's zillion of books I have to read,

there's zillion things I want to look at.

There's tons of things I want to sketch too.

I like to paint, I like to illustrate.

There's so many things I want to do,

there isn't so much time for me to go out.

And you know, to recharge your batteries,

in a job like this, you better stay alone a lot of time.

[Caroline]: This is Jacques in Paris in the apartment,

in our trip in 1974.

[interviewer]: And what's he wearing?

He's wearing lederhosen.

What was Jacques like? Tell me about him.

Oh, I had a massive crush on him.

[laughs]

I didn't know that I did for a few, for a week,

or a week or two, and then, the more time I spent with him,

he was just... stunning.

What did you understand was Jacques's relationship

with Karl at that point?

Assistant, friend?

Close friend?

He was, uh... Yeah, he was...

he would do whatever needed to be done.

He took care of us for a couple of weeks.

We did get to go shopping, and I did buy dresses,

and my first pair of high heels.

I thought I was the bomb. [chuckles]

It was Karl paying for all this?

Yeah. I got my first mascara.

I hadn't worn makeup.

He took me to the salon, cut my hair,

dyed my hair, I didn't even look the same.

But I was still a fat American.

Hadn't been to a fine restaurant ever,

so we were in for a treat

because he took us to restaurants,

he took us shopping.

And he stayed up all night working, I recall that.

And after a while, he got back into his routine.

This is him working in his apartment.

And I ran into the room and snapped a picture of him,

like, "Candid!" [interviewer chuckles]

He didn't like that.

[jazz music]

Oh, we have a lot of things here.

[laughs] We have a lot of things here

I recognize.

So, this is my first Chanel shoot.

I like it. Look.

It's perfect.

[interviewer]: How old were you, can I ask?

Uh, '71, I was about 25.

Twenty... I don't remember.

[laughs]

[narrator]: The move that was to make him world-famous

came in 1982,

when Karl was suddenly brought in as creative director

of the legendary house of Chanel,

which was struggling, 11 years

after the death of its founder,

Coco Chanel.

The great fashion innovator was hired

to bring the aging brand back to life.

He took the studio of Mademoiselle Chanel, of course,

and he came with a new team, totally new team.

Young team around his studio.

People always think about Chanel as if she was

the top of fashion all her life.

I can tell you, after the stupid things

she said about me and the mini skirt,

it was something people were not excited about

because it was very middle-aged.

She was mean. Mean bitch.

I have nothing against mean bitches,

Being quite mean myself, that's not the problem.

He made a lot of changes. A lot, a lot of changes.

He hired top models. That was very new.

[jazz music]

[Gilles]: He was crazy for Inès de la Fressange,

who started to be our muse.

And she helped a lot Chanel.

Then, Inès left,

and we had to find a new face.

And Claudia Schiffer arrived.

She gave something to Chanel which was quite new:

her sex appeal and her freshness.

He was very provocative. He sent her on the podium

with a very little bikini.

And the president of Chanel at that time, he said,

"You're sure?" And he said,

"Let me... That's not your job, it's my job."

[laughs]

We became again a young company.

[Karl]: But you know, my job is to make-believe.

And as long as people think it looks Chanel,

you never thought it was Chanel and she never did that before,

who cares? My job is to make the image.

And whatever it is.

And those elements can all be used

to be put somewhere

to make it look Chanel,

or whatever people think Chanel is or was, because who cares.

That's not the problem. The problem is

the fashion message from today.

[interviewer]: He was aware of business.

Oh, totally. Totally aware of business.

He didn't care about marketing,

but he was the king of marketing.

[crowd clapping]

Because he knew where he could stop and where he could go,

and if he was going too far, you know. It was incredible.

Karl was a very, very good PR person.

He's the king of the storytelling.

[Karl]: My father, when he was 83,

he sold his business and he died at 90 from boredom.

I work on the music, I design the sets myself.

Everything.

Everything. I do everything myself.

I design the print.

I design the buttons, the jewellery.

Look what I did. And then, they know how to drag it out

because they have the technique and all the proportions,

but I do everything myself.

In three seconds, like that.

When the owners of Chanel hired Karl,

he has to be free.

So, he had the money he needed

to make the shows he wanted to do. He was free.

[interviewer]: But sometimes, they were quite extravagant,

weren't they? The shows. - Yes!

And why not? [laughs]

He can afford it!

[upbeat jazz music]

[narrator]: But Karl was not only chief designer at Chanel,

he had the same job in two other fashion houses:

Fendi in Italy,

and his own label, Karl Lagerfeld.

By now, he was earning a fortune.

But his attempt to protect it

from France's new higher taxing socialist government

was to bedevil him for the rest of his life,

and cause problems after his death.

[♪]

[in English]

[classical piano music]

[narrator]: Monaco offered not only a tax haven

where residents paid no income tax,

but also proximity to his friend, Princess Caroline,

who he'd known since she was a teenager.

He liked her. She's very beautiful.

She's intelligent. She's a princess.

She inspired him

and he inspired her.

I think he was always helping during the Bal de la Rose,

which was a big tradition

that she has to go through, and charity, and everything.

You better have the best friend that has good ideas

for the music, for the invitations,

and who loves to party and organizing all that.

I think they were a team.

He enjoyed having Caroline as an image for Chanel.

She was very much in the magazine at the time,

and she was always dressed with Chanel,

so it was a good... I told you,

he was a marketing man,

even in his relationships.

[laughs]

[narrator]: With his royal connections,

Karl was offered a long lease

on the magnificent villa La Vigie,

perched on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean.

"La Vigie" means...

The place from where you can watch well.

From there, you see everything, huh?

House with the view. [laughs]

Yes, there's not a room, it's a house with a view.

Exactly. It's a beautiful thing here,

it's light, the air, all the windows open.

So, there are enough other intimate rooms of the house

that I wanted those three rooms, like,

really one big ball room.

Very open. I thought you'd throw some pretty

good parties here. - Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Tell me about the people who come and visit you

and stay here. - I hate name-dropping.

[dramatic music]

[narrator]: La Vigie is in fact just the other side

of the unmarked border, in France.

The bombshell meant that Karl

would now have to pay French tax after all.

[interviewer]: How is it possible for an intelligent man

to not know that that house was not in Monaco,

but it was in France?

Do you believe he didn't know it was in France?

The house?

[classical music]

[in French]

[narrator]: Karl was forced to sell his

beloved 18th-century furniture

to pay his tax bill.

By this time, he had already lost the love of his life,

Jacques de Bascher, the man he had to share

with his rival, Saint Laurent,

and had then looked after during his final months

living with AIDS.

He never forgot him.

[Sébastien]: The first time he really spoke to me

about Jacques, he said,

"Oh, today, it's 20 years."

I said, "20 years of what?"

[blows] You know?

And he said, "Ah, it's 20 years that Jacques disappeared."

Because he was talking to me about Jacques,

about the story, about Jacques, who was crazy,

but he was cultivated, he was, like...

He explained so many things about Jacques,

on his private things, you know?

He was very sad after the death of Jacques de Bascher.

Of his mother, too. It was at the same time.

And I think he begins to eat a lot.

This year, when he lost Jacques,

he was still good-looking, you know?

And after that, he didn't take care of this,

and he started to take some weight, you know.

He got fat at the time, yes,

because he loved to eat.

When we were going to Germany,

we were eating currywurst,

and he was... [chomping]

He was crazy with currywurst.

I like them too.

[classical music]

You are unbelievably thin!

Stand up, do a little spin yourself!

60 pounds you lost. - Yes, exactly.

In seven and a half, maybe eight months.

I hit the feeling, "It's time to change."

But I like better, "Life is change."

That's why I'm in fashion.

This was really a turning point in his life

because the image was so important,

the TV, the social media...

J'accueille Karl Lagerfeld!

He accepts all the television shows,

the interviews, the pictures, it was incredible.

It was such a change in his life.

It was a real turning point.

Euh, Karl Lagerfeld, alors...

[jazzy lounge music]

And then, he did a book!

"How to Lose Weight."

Nothing, he left nothing to someone else.

He never stopped

thinking of something new.

That's what he did the whole time.

He was the first one to do H

[orchestral jazz music]

[chuckling]

Karl Lagerfeld is a brand.

In one night, the time to do the windows,

he became extremely famous

to mainstream agents.

[journalist]: ...les trophées sont des vêtements.

The collection was launched,

and I mean, it was... pfft!

Big thing all over the world.

People were lying outside of the doors of the H boutiques

in New York and Paris to be the first one to come in.

It's a huge term in fashion,

but it changed the way of living of Karl,

truly from one day to the other.

[narrator]: Karl's lawyer Celine

also acted as his agent, brokering deals.

She found is newfound fame did half the work for her.

[Celine]: They were expecting so huge demands

that they could behave strangely.

[laughs]

I received the proposal.

I did not answer right away, and one week after,

I received the same proposal,

but it was twice... the amount. [laughs]

[interviewer]: Twice the amount?

And I had done nothing. [laughs]

I asked him to make a t-shirt with the face of Karl.

It'll be sold out in five minutes in H

He understood logo before anyone else.

Logo is the thing before anything else.

They love it.

That's my business card.

The name of the brand became the face of Karl.

You don't need to read, "Karl Lagerfeld." That's huge.

The way he dressed was so original. He was often saying,

"I'm a kind of Charlie Chaplin."

A book holder. I love it.

Tiens. It was a very, very, very special way

to transform himself into an icon.

[host]: Now, tell me about the look, though.

I mean, look at that collar.

They are like washable turtlenecks, they are... [tapping]

Wait, listen! Do that again.

[tapping] Oh, yeah, very stiff.

Yes. Because it's good for the position, you know?

Yeah, keeps you like this.

I have a kind of...

pre-1940 German officer feeling in my bones

and in my position-- [overlapping chatter] - In the regimen, yes.

It's something I got. There's nothing I can do.

Yeah, I thought it was cool 'cause it was so different, you know? And no one did that.

But he pulled it off as if it was totally normal.

Like, I never even... When I saw him, I never even thought anything.

I was like, "Oh, it's just Karl."

That's just how he was, you know?

[interviewer]: Did you ever see him dressed in other things?

No, he'd always wear that, even on holidays.

He kind of enjoyed that, you know,

that he was mysterious and people were interested in him.

[curious music]

I thought he was the strangest person I've ever met.

I thought the way he dressed was very weird. I really did.

[narrator]: Amanda Harlech was at Karl's side at Chanel

for the last 20 years of his life,

and became a frequent visitor to his many homes.

[Amanda]: I think his houses

actually often flagged up a transformation

before he transformed.

He had his apartment in the Quai Voltaire,

which was like a spaceship.

Almost like living in an X-ray, really.

And Karl lived in this extraordinary twilight shadow world.

[interviewer]: How often did you see him?

I saw him practically every day that he was in Paris.

Whenever he came down or he came in,

we saw each other quite often.

But antiques were the things that you had met over.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think he knew very well

he had a great eye. I mean, he's had a great eye for all periods.

I mean, he went from 18th century to his apartment upstairs,

now it's all white with neon lights.

I think it's insane, but anyway,

that's what he did and that's the mind he had.

The books were hidden behind frosted glass panels,

and yet, you could see the spines of the books' shadows.

[♪]

I like the idea of moving.

Not being the victim of your possessions.

What is it about the hip and the young that attract you?

It's the reflection of the time we live in.

If you think it was better before... You know,

the worst thing in life is old friends of people

you know for a long time telling you, "Remember the good old days."

Forget about the good old days. [interviewer laughs]

I should make you a present secondhand.

What's interesting is now, because you-- If you lived--

- Now and tomorrow. - And you think it's better before,

then you can commit suicide immediately.

He was always working, he was always busy,

he was always talking about the next thing he's working on,

and he was very focused all the time. Even on vacation,

he was working 12 hours a day.

He's working on sketching, and working on reading

and his next concept, his next show, and he would come out to lunch

and tell us what he's working on, then after lunch, he'd say,

"I gotta go to work," and he'd work 'til 9-10 o'clock at night.

Then, we'd have dinner, and then, we'd go to town every night at 12 o'clock,

1 o'clock for a drink, get home at 2, and then,

he would stay up 2-3 o'clock reading, you know,

returning faxes, texts, phone calls.

If he had a cold, he would not bring it up,

he would just push through

and act as everything was normal.

So, he really was an incredible strength

when it comes to that stuff.

He rarely showed weakness at all, ever.

'Cause he was always interested by youth and by new.

He was interested by what was new.

He let the other ones get old.

He never wanted to be old.

He didn't like to speak of age,

and when I speak of my age, he says, "Stop."

[in English]

He was surrounded by young people.

He didn't like to see all the elder people.

That's why perhaps he didn't like to speak of my age.

[laughs] Because I was too old for him.

[orchestral music]

[narrator]: Karl was hardly shy

in expressing his controversial views,

getting into hot water over remarks about Adele's looks, amongst others.

Do you think that women are enslaved, in a way,

by the fashion industry's insistence on women being thin?

Yes, but I see it like a normal evolution, you see.

You mean, it'll be okay for women to be fat in the future?

- I'm afraid, yes. - But not okay now?

No.

[orchestral music continues]

[narrator]: Brad was only 23 when he met 70-year-old Karl.

In a short time, Karl was putting him in almost

all of his shoots.

The Chanel catwalk, and in every campaign.

Brad became the world's top male model for three years running,

and they became close.

We started doing just photographs,

not professionally, but just, you know, on our own,

and then after doing it for a while, he decided to do

a book on me, so we did, uh...

It ended up being five years.

It was called Metamorphoses of an American.

[interviewer]: What was it like to be direct...

What was it like being shot nude by him?

Yeah, it was... felt natural, you know?

I mean, as a model, I mean, it's not...

Nowadays, it's not as typical, but back in the day,

I feel like all the supermodels, they all were photographed nude.

So, I didn't think anything of it, you know?

[♪]

[narrator]: But then, five years after meeting Brad,

Karl came across 18-year-old Baptiste.

I think he found him, he was the first one to find him

to become a model,

and after, he made him a celebrity, let's say,

because he was using him all the time.

It's true, he was... He's still very beautiful.

Wow! Wow!

Attends, attends, attends! Okay, okay...

Oui. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great, that's great.

[laughing]

[in French]

[in English]

Baptiste was the only one that, you know,

in French, you call someone "you" or "tu."

He was the only person I know who called Karl "tu."

Only one.

[crowd chattering]

We all figured that he had a crush on Baptiste,

that's for sure, that he found him exceptionally beautiful.

But I will... personally me, I never see any...

Okay, he kiss him, but no...

Maybe make a little, "Hey. Stop, Baptiste." Something like that,

but nothing could be sexual or anything, no.

People talk a lot. Me, personally, I never see anything.

[in French]

Oui.

[ragtime music]

Oh, it's so good. Put it against the mirror.

[narrator]: But in the end, the adoption didn't go ahead.

Baptiste puts that down

to the complications of French bureaucracy.

[camera shutter clicking]

However, Karl did become a godfather to Brad's two sons,

Hudson and Jameson Karl.

Yeah, he loved the boys, as like they were his grandkids.

Always looked out for them, always wanted the best for them,

always made sure they were doing good at school, their education,

make sure they're gonna go to good schools.

And between personal and work, I mean,

we spent more time with Karl throughout the year

than we did even with our own families.

[soft string music]

[narrator]: Karl brought the whole family over

every summer to stay with him in the south of France.

This one, I love.

This one was in Saint-Tropez,

and whenever we would arrive, we'd, you know,

bring something with us, and this year, I had brought

framed pictures of the boys, and he really loved them.

He immediately had them hung up, and I just,

I love his smile in this one.

He just looks like, proud of the boys,

and it's very sweet to me, this photo.

[Jameson]: Oh, was that at the party where we were all holding Karl faces?

[Brad]: That was in New York.

It was like a popsicle stick with his face on it,

and we used to carry it around.

It was a dinner in New York,

and they had one of these at every single place setting.

I mean, Karl was a master at marketing and PR,

and we were in Saint-Tropez at lunch and he just said,

"Oh, do you think Hudson can do the show?"

I was like, "Yeah, of course, Karl."

And, you know, I had no idea if he could or not,

I just said yeah. And, uh...

'Cause he was only... he'd just turned two.

So, I figured it was just gonna be a typical runway,

you know, 30 seconds down, 30 seconds back.

So, we got to the show.

It's an 11-minute walk.

They did a replica of the Versailles Garden

in the Grand Palais, so it was a massive set.

I was like, this is gonna be a disaster.

And he was just, like, professional as can be.

He asked me to pick him up, so I picked him up,

and then, sure enough, Karl was right, like,

it was picked up across, all over the world,

me and Hudson at the Chanel show.

[orchestral music]

[applauding]

What he created on the runway was extraordinary.

Everything he built at the Grand Palais,

you know, from the airport.

To the supermarket.

To the art exhibition.

To the reconstruction of Paris bridge and the little shop.

To the launch of a rocket.

[rocket engine rumbling]

[♪]

To a forest.

[birds chirping]

Each time, it was like a surprise,

and you know this one year in advance

because it takes one year to prepare all this stage.

He gives a sense of humour,

and people love that, because

fashion is to make a smile on your face.

Tell us how it feels to be here tonight.

Uh... cool. It's fun.

My favourite fashion person is Karl.

So, this picture right here was the first time

I ever met him, in Berlin.

[interviewer]: You wouldn't obviously remember that, but...

Yeah. And then, this was Sébastien.

He gave me a pair of gloves and we were, like, boxing.

And then, over here... - Yeah...

Um, he drew me these.

- Is that you? - Yeah.

Looks like, "For Hudson."

I don't know, that kind of looks like "love."

"Saint-Tropez..." Can't read the last word,

but then, I see "Karl" at the bottom.

Karl gave this to me a few years ago.

I think it's really cool.

[interviewer laughing] - Is it just a fantasy?

Yeah. I mean, it would be cool if it was real, but...

You went on private jets with him, but they weren't...

Yeah, no.

Private jets?

Yeah, of course, private jets.

[cabaret jazz music]

Taking everybody to La Réserve in Saint-Tropez,

then taking everyone to Tokyo,

then flying there and flying there,

and giving things to everyone the whole time.

Instant, you liked something, he bought it for you.

And he was buying for tons of clothes,

every Saturday or every two Saturdays

for Brad, Baptiste and I.

[interviewer]: So, you got a lot of clothes out of him.

Yeah, of course. [interviewer chuckling]

I'm just... It's a shame.

- Where are they all? - They are in storage.

I need a bigger house to put them.

[♪]

When we were with him in a shop, he said,

"You want that? You want that?"

And he offered us. It was absolutely incredible.

He was so generous.

He bought all my telephones.

"Which colour you want? Black, pink, silver?"

I said, "Black is fine with me."

[indistinct chatter]

Hé, oh, oh, oh, oh!

We were requesting for extravagant conditions.

I negotiated a huge plane with, like,

two bedrooms, two showers and... [chuckles]

[interviewer]: On a plane? - Yes.

And, um...

We were on the plane and he said,

"What do you think, Celine? Isn't it a bit big?"

[laughs]

I remember when we used to fly on his plane, it was funny

'cause he used to sleep sitting straight up,

and I always used to think it was weird

'cause I don't know anybody that can do that.

You could never pay something with Karl, never.

- Oh, really? - No, never.

I think I paid for a coffee one time for him.

It was at the Café de Flore in Paris,

and I said, "Oh, Karl, let me get the coffee." He goes,

"Make sure... Tip well, darling."

[narrator]: Karl's biggest treat for himself was to buy books,

lots of them, at this bookstore three times a week.

Everything was very fast when Karl was coming here.

He would come in this way,

of course, stop at the fine arts department,

and ask what was new,

and he was like a child in front of a Christmas tree.

[jazzy music]

Thick folders of bills, all K-L.

September, August...

Books were food for Karl.

He had a lot of knowledge of everything.

Portraits of John Berger on Art.

Ancient Greek Economy. British Drama.

He was reading all of them so fast.

Philosophy before the Greeks. The Rest of Us.

No other couturier in the world is so complete as Karl.

Dickens, Religion and Society.

He had the knowledge, which was incredible.

He didn't have to read them completely, he was so quick.

The Art of Nijinsky. The Sense of Beauty, of course.

And the books would be bulging.

And the cost that day, the total?

The cost that day...

30,242 euros. So, you see...

And that's just one day.

That was just one day, yes.

Karl told me once that he had 300,000 books,

and to give you an idea,

if you look at the store here, we have 30,000 books,

so that means that he had 10 times this volume of books.

- This shop has-- - This shop. 30,000.

So, we're looking at, there's a bit behind us,

we're looking at nearly 30,000 books?

- Yes. - And he had 10 times that.

10 times.

That's a lot of books.

It is.

I can tell you that he was our best client,

and he was spending between...

500 and 700,000 euros a year.

- On books? In this bookshop? - On books. Yes.

- With you. - Yes.

Over half a million euros a year?

Yes.

So, you looked after him well. [chuckles]

We loved him, of course,

but not for his money, for his culture.

Very often, he was taking a book

and putting it close to his heart and saying,

"This is going to be my gift for tonight."

And he was in love with books, I can tell you.

And then, there was all the books

he was offering to people.

His collaborators, his friends, to the models,

to share his tastes in literature or in philosophy.

I mean, did he buy books on philosophy for young models?

Yes, he did.

And he was convinced that

they would be absolutely seduced by it, so...

[chuckling] - Did you ever hear whether it worked or not?

Uh, I'm not sure it worked. [chuckling]

But he tried, and he kept on trying.

[classical music]

[narrator]: This extraordinary room elsewhere in Paris

stores only part of Karl's huge collection,

which he would often share with Amanda Harlech.

Art Deco. That's very Karl.

Boyce, very important.

We are who he loved.

He reminded me frequently that

my knowledge of English history, British history was really bad.

Thump came a book.

The saga of paper, Karl's passion.

Opera... Structuralism in Dutch Architecture.

I mean, he would smile about it.

He would never make you feel low self-worth.

It was more an invitation. Learn. Go.

Come on, it was like, he sensed, like, we are blessed

to have this life force.

[♪]

He was buying books for me,

and it was, "You should read that. You should know about this."

All the time. He was very generous, but he was not stupid.

To buy this kind of things was to buy the things to make me more intelligent.

He gave me the possibility

to not talk about only sports or clothes,

he was giving me the possibility to talk about history, about art,

to talk about, you know, all those things.

He made me love the things around,

the history of this building, the history of this statue,

the history of this tree, the history of just everything, you know?

Because he was giving you another way to explain,

that's why he was my best professor.

[soft orchestral music]

[narrator]: In 1992, Karl had a special gift

for his niece Caroline soon after she got engaged.

There was a phone call that my mother and I made to him,

and I said, "I'm getting married!"

And he said, "Of course I shall make the dress."

And I was... [stammering]

...speechless. Okay!

And this was back in the day when we were faxing,

and sketches after sketches after sketches came across the fax machines.

"With all these sketches,

you will get an idea of the dress.

I think it will make you look thin and tall."

[wheezing laugh]

I am neither. [laughs]

My mother measured all parts from the head, to the wrist,

to the whatever, and I drew my foot on a piece of paper

and faxed that to him, and then, heard nothing.

And I wasn't worried at all. I wasn't worried at all.

The dress did not come until the day before the wedding.

He put it on the Concorde, it had its own plane seat,

and it was delivered by a driver to my house

in the middle of a snowstorm.

[interviewer]: Do you still have it? - I do.

- Can we see it? - Sure.

So, this is the...

Oh, my goodness.

This is it! [interviewer laughs]

- Wow! - Poofy sleeves!

It's all lace. It's seven layers of lace, actually.

- Seven! - Explaining to me...

the seven layers.

Everyone was just waiting to see this dress

because by then, I was talking about it a lot.

Like, how exciting is this?

So, what was the reaction?

It was awe.

[narrator]: Karl's generosity continued over the years,

sending gifts and money to Caroline and her mother.

They were in contact until the end, but in fact,

she never met her uncle again.

Can I ask a very direct question?

Did he leave you anything in his will?

Uh, not that I know of.

I don't think the will's resolved.

I think you're right.

Does that surprise you?

No.

He was generous throughout his entire life,

there was no need to... No need.

I was pleased to be related at all. [chuckles]

I didn't ask for anything. I was overjoyed and surprised

that he wanted to make a dress for me

because sure, we are distant.

There's no bitterness or anything at all, never was.

[narrator]: The people Karl chose to be closest to him

in his later years were also a kind of family.

The one absolute requirement was devotion.

Planet Karl is black and white,

made of loyalty and friendship.

The recurrent reason of someone disappearing from Planet Karl

was him to be betrayed.

That was the worst.

[indistinct chatter]

[Gilles]: They call me the right arm of Karl Lagerfeld.

And he heard that some headhunters were looking for me

for another collection. That, he didn't like at all.

You know, after 15 years, you need to move on.

I needed to express myself somewhere in a way,

and to be on my own, so...

little by little, the relationship disintegrated.

We didn't even say goodbye to each other when I left Chanel.

- Really? - No.

You don't leave Karl Lagerfeld.

All the people who tried to leave him,

then they were out, so I was one of them.

Like Claudia at one time, Inès at one time.

- In a way, he cut you off. - He cut me off, it's true.

[rhythmic instrumental music]

You know Choupette, of course, which is not a nice girl.

Very jealous girl, Choupette. She's a mean cat, yes.

You know, for Christmas, I give all the time like a sort of scarf in cashmere

with something that he liked, and he told me,

"You know, Madame Roitfeld,

Choupette, she never destroys anything in my clothes,

but she destroyed totally your shawl."

So, Choupette is jealous, and when I see her sometimes,

she can bite, she can scratch you. She's not a nice girl.

[meows]

[interviewer]: Is she in any way

a little bit of a diva?

Oh, she's a diva. Oh, she's an enormous diva.

I've never seen anything like this.

And if she doesn't want, well, it's her decision.

We won't force her.

We know if she's gonna like it by presenting,

and if she doesn't, well, it's a no. Sorry, we can't do it.

[chuckles]

[jazzy lounge music]

[in French]

[in English]

[in French]

[interviewer]: Why do you think Karl was so...

the English word is "besotted"? [chuckles]

[in French]

[soft piano music]

He wants to protect him,

himself, and he did not want to show people his real feelings.

He usually had always black glasses,

you couldn't see his eyes, and once, he had see-through...

Not see-through, but they were only tinted.

So, I said, "Karl, I can see your eyes."

And he said...

He took the glasses off, and he said,

"Yeah, they're really sad."

[interviewer]: Why do you think he always hid behind sunglasses?

Because he didn't really want people to really know him, I guess.

That's why.

Maybe not to see the real Karl.

[narrator]: Karl didn't only hide his feelings from others,

he was secretive about anything

which could portray weakness in himself,

which is why only one person knew about his final illness.

That day, I was on the beach with a friend of mine,

and Karl called me. He said,

"I have a problem." I said, "What?"

"No, no, no, it's difficult to explain."

[♪]

Because Karl told me on the phone

it was impossible for him to pee.

Imagine me, I didn't know nothing about that, you know?

He needed an emergency admission to the hospital,

in the intensive care unit,

because the situation was very bad.

[in English]

I tried to explain to him the situation,

and to tell him that the situation was very bad

and he had to fight in order to allow him

to survive as more as possible,

but he was not listening. He was thinking just,

"You are the doctor, I am Karl,

I do my job, you do your job, but please,

just do what is important, what is right to do,

but if you try to explain to me,

maybe I will hear you, but maybe not."

[interviewer]: Did that surprise you?

Yes, completely. I don't know any patient like him.

I was like a million times more scared about

what he had than he was himself.

And he decided not to get surgery,

it was his choice, and to try to find the best way,

like with medicaments.

You have, like, press everywhere in the world

who would love this kind of story, you know?

They would be very, very happy

to get some details of everything.

The medicine, I was putting everything under my name,

and I made all of this like this to protect, you know, the info.

Allô?

I was telling Sébastien everything because...

as I could not explain to Karl anything

because I was always trying to explain to him,

and Sébastien was always going back to me and telling me,

"You must do it. You must explain to him."

I said, "I tried."

He's still in front of me.

Then, "Karl, I want to tell you something, you have to hear me."

[laughs]

Karl was a very strong man, you know.

Physically and mentally, very strong.

I think he never accepted. That's why also, he was, like,

always doing things like nothing happened, you know?

Like nothing exists on him.

[soft applause]

[tense horn music]

He was working all the time, all the time.

He was putting all his energy in his job.

We didn't know anything, that he was ill.

I didn't know anything about that.

But he faked it.

He started hiding himself, his beard and all that.

Then, he'd show at the end, I mean, he'd show,

but he didn't walk up at the end of the shows and everything,

but his way of fighting was now.

[Sébastien]: Until the last moment,

we were thinking we were gonna find a solution.

The day before Karl died,

he said, "You think it's gonna be possible that

I get out of here, like, Wednesday? Or Thursday?

Then, like this, we can be at the Fendi show."

And the day after, 12 hours after, it was done.

[interviewer]: Were you there? - Yeah, of course, I was there.

[♪]

[in French]

[interviewer]: I imagine the succession will be a lot of money.

[in English]

Because of tax?

I don't know, it's very mysterious.

The account disappeared.

You say the accountant disappeared?

Tell me what is known or what is rumoured.

Well, rumoured, I mean,

he had a little accountant which was a little man

always walking behind him like that,

sitting in the third row of the shows.

He was always around.

Apparently, he disappeared.

He was there for 30 years, 40 years.

- As the main accountant. - Yeah, of course.

For me, he was very important. This guy was respected a lot.

Like, I did until the end, you know.

But at the end, I should not. [chuckles]

I was really pissed.

- What do you think-- - And I'm still pissed.

[scoffs]

[narrator]: It turns out that Karl's accountant

has moved to Switzerland,

and he can't answer any questions due to ill health.

So Karl's presumed heirs are none the wiser about what,

if anything, they're going to receive.

The situation left at the end was not very...

How to say that, tidy?

[chuckles]

This kind of big succession, it can take 10 years or...

Really?

And you have France, and you have Monaco.

Uh, part of the succession is...

is managed in Monaco.

Does that complicate things?

Yes. [laughs]

And we have a big problem in France with the residence, you know?

What, France or Monaco?

Yeah, yeah, that's a problem, like this and taxes problem,

you know, and it became like... [whistles]

Enormous, and now we are still trying to deal with that.

How's it going?

[chuckling] - Not too good, but we will see.

You're smiling, though, you're keeping happy.

Yeah, I smile. I smile because what do you want me to do?

I don't want to kill myself because of this.

- Do you miss him? - Of course I do.

I only... I think I am only starting to recover.

- Really? - And it's a long time,

three years and a half.

'Cause it was almost a day-to-day...

We were talking almost every morning.

What did you talk about every day?

[laughs]

Secrets. [laughs]

Things that you can say only to your lawyer.

[soft orchestral music]

I mean, he changed my life, when I met him at 23.

You know, at the time, I was still modelling, I was a good model at the time,

but he definitely brought my career

to a whole other level, which I never would've had.

It was amazing, and then, everything he did for us,

for my family and the kids, and the travelling,

and all the experiences we got to have, it was like a movie.

Almost like living a dream.

- It's about to go down. - My eyes are watering.

My eyes are...

- Here it goes. - It looks like it's sinking.

When he passed away, I think I was almost in shock.

He played such an important role in my life.

It was pretty hard.

Of course, he completely changed my life, yeah.

In good and bad reason, also.

Because most of the things, they are good

because he gave me the chance to make new things

and to arrive in a new world.

And I arrived in this world, and I was on the top,

it's like to live with a lot of things and everything... crash.

I always keep two feet, you know, one where I'm from,

and the one where I was, you know?

And I make the balance like this in my life.

But you think you're still from there,

but you're not from there anymore.

But you're not also from... You're not from there too.

You don't know really who you are, you know,

because at one point, you're living in a different world,

and it's difficult to go back.

You cannot go back to your old world.

It's impossible.

It's impossible, you prefer to die.

You see what I mean? It's a difficult way.

[♪]

[narrator]: As those closest to Karl mourn,

Choupette has already moved on.

She has a raft of marketing appointments in her diary.

We are presenting three products

that we've collaborated with today.

And so, one of them is a transport travel bag

made for cats, and yeah.

She's sharing this adventure with us.

We never know what she thinks.

It's like, she thinks.

She's always thinking about her next move.

[orchestral music swells]

Subtitling: difuze