Natalya Gradskaya with her youngest son Vadim
Photo: Personal archive.
As Alexander Gradsky’s heirs divide up his fortune, rumoured to be worth one billion rubles, the musician’s cousin Natalya Gradskaya is defending her rights in a French court.
Natalya Gradskaya now lives in Nice. Many years ago she married a Frenchman, Xavier Fulchiron. When they met, Xavier did not even hint that he was the son of the mayor of Lyon. From a respectable bourgeois family. But what does this mean for love? Soon, two sons of the same age were born in the young family: Nikita and Vadim. Now they are already adults: Nikita is 24 years old, he is a future doctor and is studying to be a surgeon. Well, the youngest Vadim… A special child. “Rain Man”, isolated from the world.
“I didn’t find out that my youngest son had autism right away, but several years after his birth. I gave birth to children in a private clinic in Lyon,” Natalya Gradskaya told KP.RU. – Everything went well with Nikita. But not with Vadim. Although at discharge he was given 10 points on the Apgar scale (the highest score given by a neonatologist to newborns – Ed.). Shortly after birth, Vadim was hospitalized – he was choking. Then developmental disorders appeared. But in France they told me: madam, everything is fine with your son. Well, when I arrived in Moscow, Russian doctors immediately noticed a developmental delay. And they began to treat, help, correct. The son required constant attention. Speech therapists, speech therapists, neurologists, study groups – everything was at our disposal and free of charge. This despite the fact that my children have French citizenship. But nowhere in Russia have I been denied help. This is impossible in France. In Moscow, my son played tennis, went to speech school, hippotherapy, dolphin therapy, and swimming… There are many opportunities for socializing with special needs children in Russia. While I spent all day studying with my youngest daughter, my eldest, Nikita, was successfully studying at the French Embassy school. Everything was wonderful. Nikita still remembers her years in Moscow as the best.
But at some point my husband wanted to return (he now bitterly regrets it) to France so that Nikita could continue her education in Europe. We returned… And my torment began.
First of all, I immediately felt a completely different attitude towards me and my youngest son. Even from the immediate family. My husband’s father is a famous lawyer: Roland Fulchiron, mayor of Lyon.
Sunday family dinner in their big, beautiful house is a tradition. We come to lunch with my grandfather and they tell me: there is no need to seat Vadim at the common table. How is that? Why? This is my own grandson…
But these are minor things compared to the difficulties that arose when I tried to get Vadim into a specialized school. This took several years. The same amount of time is required for a child to become disabled.
When this stage was finally overcome, my husband and I separated. We each started our own lives. We remain friends. I moved with my children to Nice. There I got a job as a dog trainer. This is my dream job. But new difficulties arose related to the schooling of my youngest son. For 6 years (!) I could not solve this problem. The answer was: there are no places. In France, there are bureaucratic obstacles, terrible formalism and hypocrisy everywhere…
I recently filed several lawsuits. Firstly, for violating the constitutional rights of a disabled person: since 2018, Vadim has not been accepted into any specialized school. Secondly, a lawsuit against the clinic where my son was born. There was a medical error during delivery. The child was born with asphyxia; the hospital concealed this fact. We are talking about paying multimillion-dollar compensation. I have Russian citizenship. I dream of giving my youngest son Russian citizenship. And returning to Moscow with victory.
– But you don’t have a place to live here. The media wrote a lot that after your father’s death, his apartment in Moscow went not to you, but to the musician Alexander Gradsky, your famous cousin… How did this happen?
– My parents divorced when I was still a child. I grew up with my mother, but I also had a great relationship with my father. Then I left for France to get married. My dad and I continued to communicate regularly by phone. And suddenly he disappeared and stopped answering the phone. This is May 2002. My father had a two-room apartment on Berezhkovskaya Embankment. From May to October he lived in a dacha in Rastorguevo near Moscow. My childhood and that of Sasha Gradsky passed there… Our family nest. I decided that dad had gone to the dacha. Then, like everyone now, there were no mobile phones. I called Sasha and asked him to visit his father. To all my requests he replied: “I can’t, I’m busy”… In September I flew to Moscow. Sasha immediately invited me to his house “to talk”. And already at the meeting he told me that my father had died… On May 1, that he buried him in the family grave where Sasha’s mother Tamara Gradskaya was buried (she died young at 35). “And also,” he says. – Your father disinherited you. He bequeathed me a two-room apartment on Berezhkovskaya Embankment. This is the news”… Shocking to say the least. To my questions about what happened to my father, Sasha had one answer: “I don’t know…”. Later I made inquiries at the hospital where my dad died, that he was brought with a temperature of +40. He was admitted to intensive care. On the same day, Gradsky came to the hospital together… with a notary. He gave dad some papers to sign. He never returned to the hospital. And 3 days later my dad died of pneumonia. Sasha also received a death certificate from his father. To my bewilderment: why didn’t he tell me what the story was with the notary? Sasha replied: “Don’t interfere. And don’t mess with me. I’m Gradsky…”
– Why does Alexander Gradsky need his father’s apartment and his old country house? He was not poor…
– He was always rich. And very greedy. As my father said, Sasha did not go to Gradskikh, although he changed his father’s surname, Boris Fradkin, to his mother’s after her death.
The story of my father’s apartment is really strange and very ugly. But then I didn’t fight. There was no time for that… There was a sick one-year-old child in his arms. And the eldest son is only two years old.
– Following the death of Alexander Gradsky, his two eldest sons and a young widow, representing the interests of her two younger sons, are suing for an inheritance. Which side are you on?
– I am on the side of the younger children. I feel sorry for them. Firstly, they are already growing up without a father. Sasha Gradsky, despite all his shortcomings, had a lot of good things. He gave his eldest children, Daniel and Maria, an excellent education. Secondly, the huge amount of money that fell on the heirs is a great test and a big problem.
– Don’t you want to return your father’s apartment and dacha that were taken from you?
– At least my father’s archive was returned to me. Our family photos. Why do Marina (Alexander Gradsky’s widow) or Daniil and Masha need them? I don’t expect anything else yet. Although one day Danya (Daniil, Alexander Gradsky’s eldest son – Ed.) called me and said: “We received our father’s inheritance. Your dacha is not in Rastorguevo. You can fight for it…”
But I don’t want to waste my time on this now. It’s more important to win the court case in France. And move with my younger son to Moscow…
How big are the chances of defeating the French bureaucracy? We asked the lawyer representing Natalya Gradskaya, Stanislav Kshevitsky.
– In France, Natalia filed a lawsuit for violation of the rights of a disabled child. Vadim is already an adult, but he needs care, says Stanislav Kshevitsky. – We are trying to ensure that guardianship and appropriate payments are in favour of the mother, that is, Natalia.
The second lawsuit is related to a medical error at the private clinic where Vadim was born. Natalya should be paid more compensation. I think we are talking about several million euros. She should be reimbursed for all the expenses she incurred while raising a special child.
At the same time, we are working on obtaining Russian citizenship for Vadim.
