Nathalie Delon’s 1960s Rise and Marriage to Alain Delon

Nathalie Delon, born Francine Canovas on 1 August 1941 in Oujda (then a French protectorate), began her career as a model in Paris in the early 1960s. At age 21 she met actor Alain Delon in a Paris nightclub, an encounter marked by Delon accidentally sitting on her handbag, after which they started a secret affair.

The couple married secretly on 13 August 1964, honeymooned aboard the SS France, and moved to Los Angeles where their son Anthony was born on 30 September 1964. Delon remained the only woman Alain Delon ever married; they divorced in 1969. Nathalie debuted as an actress in 1967 with a role opposite Alain in Jean‑Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï, later appearing in films such as La Leçon particulière, which boosted her popularity, especially in Japan.