No one should be jealous of me

Senior comedian, writer and director Romeo Lahoud (R) Senior comedian, writer and director Romeo Lahoud was the guest of the interviewer Fady Allam in “Soot wa Sada” (Voice and Echo) on Voice of Lebanon Radio. In a frank interview, they talked about his artistic path and his character , revealing many secrets for the first time.
We first learn that when he was young he fled to Paris in order to escape the authority of his parents. His dream was to study art, but his parents did not approve this choice.
He studied drama in Paris. His specialty was theatre design. He learnt everything about the technical aspects of drama.
Despite being good at what he did, his career choice was still not welcome in his family.
It is only when his sister allowed him to be part of a theatre festival that he received more positive reactions. He was then able to introduce a theatre play to the public: Baalbek. He offered the leading role to Lebanese actress and singer Sabah.
He said that Sabah was a “very nice person to work with. She is reserved and very generous.”
He then mentioned his experience in Paris, where he held three shows with Sabah at the Olympia theatre. He said that they were very successful shows and that there was a big audience.
Lahoud said he considers himself and his work as being Lebanon’s gift to the Shah of Iran for royal events.
He went on to talk about Salwa al-Katrib, his second wife’s sister, who sadly passed away.
For Salwa’s last days, Lahoud said that she told him “my work almost done on Earth” referring to the fact that Salwa was a religious person.  She used to spend hours meditating and praying in the church.
As for his personal life, Romeo Lahoud says no one should envy him. His first marriage failed, he lost his daughter. He had a very difficult time until he met his second wife Alexandra. Sadly she died recently, which affected him a lot. He sold his house in Amchit because he said it had been built especially for her, and the memories were too painful to endure. He did not expect her to die before him as she was 13 years younger than him.
When it comes to the melancholic theme in his songs like “Khedny Maak, Sho fi Khalf el Bahr Khabryat, Alouly El Eid...” (Take me with you, many stories behind the sea, they told me the feast...) he said: “this is right and I don’t know why, may be because of what I faced in my life...”
He also added that Wael Kfoury is a great singer and praised Najwa Karam’s pure Lebanese voice.