Maïwenn Parents: Meet Catherine Belkhodja, Patrick Le Besco

Maïwenn is a French actress, film director, and screenwriter. Mawenn is the daughter of Catherine Belkhodja and Patrick Le Besco. Her mother Catherine Belkhodja is an artist and her father Patrick Le Besco is a linguist.

Her mother has worked as a reporter for the Gamma Agency, as well as with magazines such as L’autre Journal and La légende du siècle. She has also founded a new magazine focusing on Asian issues, and she has collaborated with gastronomy, tourism, and travel magazines.

Maïwenn reported “she was abused by both her parents after their separation, having been beaten physically and verbally by her father around the age of seven or eight, and then by her mother during her adolescence” following her parents’ divorce; this experience informed her films Pardonnez-moi (2006) and Polisse (2011).  Her mother, she said, “is a poison for me.” She tainted my life.”

She is of Breton, Vietnamese, French, and Algerian ancestry. Her maternal grandfather is of Algerian descent, while her father is of mixed French and Vietnamese ancestry.

Mawenn’s stage mother pushed her to act at a young age, which she later documented in her one-woman shows Le Pois Chiche (The Chickpea) and I’m an Actress.