Jane Birkin Actor and singer, 70, single.
I adored my father [David Birkin]. He was my hero. He worked for the French Resistance in World War II and helped smuggle people to the coast of France in the middle of the night. He spent too much time lying on damp beaches and that led to a life filled with health complications. He was always coughing in the dark. I remember holding his handkerchief as a child and seeing bloodstains on it.
Dad was a funny man and always had a sense of humour, despite his ailments. I got very used to visiting him in hospitals. In diaries I wrote between the ages of 12 and 17, I talk about how much I miss him and how I wish he had better health. I don't think there was a year that went by when he didn't have an operation.
My parents spent a lot of time travelling after the war to try and get my father's health back. My young mind was filled with constant worry for him.
My mother, Judy Campbell, was an actress and an intellectual. She helped me learn my first lines for theatre auditions. Dad was very jealous of her involvement in theatre. He took her as far away from London as possible so she could hardly do a play. My mother was the reason I wanted to act. She was stunning and moved in exclusive theatre circles – that can be intimidating for someone you're dating or about to marry.
I have fond memories of my older brother, Andrew. We are only a year apart and I always tried to win his approval as a child. We would go on adventures together as kids and tie each other up to ferry boats. We would also pretend to be other people and make home movies. He went to boarding school when he was six and I don't think he had a happy time away. My little sister, Linda, and I went to boarding school when I was 12 and she was eight. She became a sculptor. Andrew is a director and screenwriter.
As a teenager, I loved Cliff Richard – I had pictures of him on my wall. And I loved Yul Brynner. It was all about musicians and artists – I also adored composer Leonard Bernstein and painter Francis Bacon. I love creative men.
I grew up in London in the swinging '60s. It was a fabulous time, but an era my kids are more obsessed with than me. It was a time of social revolution in fashion and music. It was the time of Michael Caine, John Barry and Terence Stamp, and there were model girls everywhere, including Jean Shrimpton. It was exciting to be around the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. There were beautiful women everywhere – and men knew it.
I met composer John Barry when I was 17. We married young, but it wasn't young in those days. He was established in his field and living a life more extraordinary than mine. He was amazing in my eyes. My father wouldn't have tolerated me running off to live with a man [so] he gave in and said yes, I could marry him. He did tell me it would be a complete disaster – and it was. We were together for a few years and had one child, Kate. I went to live with my parents after it ended.
I arrived in France aged 20 [after winning a lead role in the 1969 film Slogan]. That's where I met Serge Gainsbourg. I didn't know who he was or any of his songs. It was the year we recorded a duet together, Je T'aime … Moi Non Plus. He was an extraordinary man. We were together for 13 years. He showed me a life I hadn't explored. [The couple had one child, Charlotte Gainsbourg.]
Serge is one of the greatest artists that ever lived in France. To know that he wrote about me until his dying day is more than touching. [He died of a heart attack aged 62.] That's why I keep singing his songs and touring his music.
The Birkin bag came about when I was on a plane sitting next to Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight from Paris to London [in 1981]. I was travelling with a bag that wasn't ideal because everything fell from it. He ended up suggesting they design a bag for me. I thought it was such a good idea and said it was okay if they used my name. I had nothing to do with the design apart from the fact that my name is on it. So yes, a guy sits next to a girl on a plane and the rest is fashion history.
I have had three children to three different men [Birkin has a third child, Lou, with Jacques Doillon]. This is the first time I have come out of my gloomy hole since my daughter Kate died [from a balcony fall in 2013]. All those happy memories of having my first child, coming to France for the first time with Kate as a baby and meeting Serge ... it's both beautiful and dark to reflect on.
I am very focused on my grandchildren now. Kate's son, Roman, is 30. She had him at 19 – the same age I was when I had her. He is like my own son. I was able to scoop him up, and often passed him off as my own child. He reminds me of Kate.
My daughter Charlotte moved to New York after Kate died, so I haven't seen her children as much; and my daughter Lou has a boy, Marlowe. I love having him around for belly laughs. The children keep me busy and my touring keeps the songs of Serge alive.
Jane Birkin is part of My Name Is Jane, an ongoing photographic study featuring women named Jane from Melbourne, London and Paris. She has also just released a new album, Birkin Gainsbourg: Le Symphonique.