Marie France Trouillot
Marie France Trouillot – Wolfgang Puck’s First Wife
Marie France Trouillot was Wolfgang Puck’s first wife. He married her in 1975 and divorced her in 1980.
The infamous chef has been married to Barbara Lazaroff since 1983, and they have two sons, Cameron and Byron.
One of Trouillot’s most influential works is Silencing the Past. In it, he exposes how the archives where historical truths are preserved frequently silence defeated voices.
She was born in Poland
Marie France trouillot was born in 1703 in Trzebnica, a small Silesian town close to the Habsburg-controlled Kingdom of Bohemia. Her father, Stanislaw Leszczynski, was King of Poland during the Great Northern War (1700-1721).
After her mother died, Marie was raised in exile by her father. In addition to his political status, he was a rich and powerful Polish nobleman.
In 1725, the Leszczynskis received a letter from the French court in Versailles, enclosing an offer of marriage for their daughter. After a long struggle, the marriage was finally approved.
As a result, Marie became Queen of France, an incredible event that drew universal awe. Her success at a difficult time in Europe helped France protect itself from the succession wars that plagued Europe, while providing a strong bargaining chip for Paris’s eastern policy.
She married Pierre France
Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI are sheltered in the Trianon but still confined to their respective palaces. They communicate as best they can – she from her balcony, he from his iconic gardens!
She was the only member of the throne to live in France during Napoleon’s reign. Her loyalty to France always lay first and foremost!
Her marriage to Pierre France, a scion of the French royal family, was a high point in her life. The couple enjoyed many happy years together, and had two children. She was also a prolific actress, with a long list of starring roles to her credit, including the role of Madame Verdurin in Raul Ruiz’s adaptation of Marcel Proust’s masterpiece Time Regained (Le temps retrouve).
They had two children
Of Wolfgang Puck’s three wives, the least-known of them is his first, Marie France Trouillot. She and the chef married shortly after he immigrated to the US from Austria in 1973, but they split before his debut cookbook hit shelves.
Though they divorced in 1980, she was still an important part of his life, and she continues to design and contribute creatively to his restaurants. She even co-founded Spago Hollywood with Puck!
She’s also the mother of his two sons, Cameron and Byron. They’re both based in Los Angeles, where they live with their respective families. In addition to her work in the kitchen, Barbara also designs and helps run the philanthropic side of Puck’s restaurants. She’s married to designer Gelila Assefa, and they have two children together.
She went into exile
Marie France trouillot, the author of Amour, colere et folie, was one of a long line of writers to suffer under the dictatorial regime of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier. When Gallimard published her triptych of thematically linked novellas in 1968, it was a risky move.
As the Duvaliers ruled Haiti, books were forbidden; they were kept under beds or in attics so they would not be confiscated by the Macoutes, an evil paramilitary force created by Papa Doc to enforce his rule.
When Duvalier fled in 1986, the junta ruled for a few years and handed power to Eartha Pascal Trouillot, the first woman president of Haiti. Her victory was widely considered the first free and fair elections in Haiti’s history. But the military junta soon lost control and Jean Bertrand Aristide took over.
She returned to France
Marie France Trouillot returned to France in the late 1970s. She and Wolfgang Puck had a successful marriage but after half a decade, they decided to dissolve it.
She became a famous Marilyn Monroe impersonator and starred in films like Barocco and Les Innocents. She also sung in her own albums.
Her novel Infamous Rosalie offers a genuinely readable look at life on a plantation in Saint-Domingue. By layering creative speculations on historical data, Trouillot makes an important contribution to current historiographical debates about slavery.
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