Language barrier sunk marriage of Catherine Deneuve and David Bailey

An unauthorised biography, which also exposes the beautiful Belle de Jour actress' father as a Nazi collaborator, revealed the couple found little to say to each other during their seven-year relationship.

Author Bernard Violet claimed Bailey, now 69, never learnt French and Deneuve, 62, was usually "too tired" to speak English.

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The glamorous couple, who became 1960s icons, sensationally divorced in 1972 and Deneuve, whose first marriage it was, has not wed since.

The actress, who made her reputation playing a series of beautiful ice maidens, emerges from the biography, which she tried to block, as a calculating and unhappy woman.

Violet, a respected investigative biographer, said she had an obsessive need for privacy and independence.

Deneuve, who was often described as the most beautiful woman in the world, is usually presented in France as a warm and rather scatty person, beneath an icy, controlled exterior.

But Violet claims that this image is a "legend" constructed by the actress herself.

He told The Independent: "She has made some great films, Repulsion, Belle de Jour, Indochine, during a largely inconsistent career.

"Catherine Deneuve, the woman, I find very disappointing. She is not an especially happy person, rather a sad one.

"She has spent her whole life insisting on her independence and her freedom and she has paid the price for it. I think that she is more respected than she is liked."

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Recent revelations that Deneuve had made public appearances for cash for a dubious Algerian businessman were not an isolated case, according to the book, Deneuve, L'Affranchie (Deneuve, the free woman).

However, the biography's main revelation is that Deneuve's actor father, Maurice Dorléac, sympathised with the Nazis and helped them during their occupation of France during the war.

According to records discovered by Violet, Dorléac made 72 appearances in radio plays for the pro-Nazi and virulently anti-Semitic radio station Radio-Paris.

He also appeared in several propaganda films, including one which sang the praises of the Milice, the political police of the collaborationist Vichy regime.

Dorléac was found guilty after the war of "giving aid to Germany... and damaging the unity of the French nation".

He was banned from working as an actor for six months.

The revelation is embarrassing to Deneuve, who has supported many left-wing and humanitarian causes.

Violet says that this skeleton in the family cupboard may explain the "tangle of anguish" at the heart of Deneuve's secretive personality.

In 2005, she was forced to admit – after initial denials – that she had received large cash payments to attend private parties, and a football match, with Rafik Khalifa, an Algerian businessman who had a meteoric rise before being prosecuted for fraud.

Violet says that this was part of a wider pattern of paid-for public appearances by Deneuve. She also runs her own company, Deneuve SA, which attempts to cash in on her image.