French TV Host Bernard Montiel Recalls Childhood Trauma of Leaving Morocco

Invited to promote his weekly show Une heure avec..., Bernard Montiel, a guest on Quelle époque on Saturday, March 29, 2025 on France 2, talks about the defining moments of his childhood. As a child, he had been forced to leave Morocco, where he was born, for Bordeaux. A life change that he and his mother experienced very badly. "It was very violent because we had always known the sun, the pleasure, this wonderful country that is Morocco, [...] it deeply upset me to see my mother cry every day," the actor recounts. It was also difficult for them to acclimatize: "Bordeaux is a very beautiful city, but it rained a lot, we had no relationships, it was the time with stories of the OAS (EDITOR’S NOTE: a clandestine French terrorist organization created in 1961 to defend the French presence in Algeria), of repatriated French..."

At school, it was worse. Bernard Montiel avoids mentioning his origins, in order not to "have problems at recess." "All my life, I was treated as a dirty