A French court declared Yves Montand a girl's father after his death, and his body was exhumed to test it

Yves Montand, born Ivo Livi, was one of France's biggest singing and film stars. He died of a heart attack at Senlis on 9 November 1991, aged 70, and was buried at Père-Lachaise beside his wife Simone Signoret. In 1989 Anne Drossart, a former actress, had sued on behalf of her daughter Aurore, born 6 October 1975, to have Montand declared the father. In April 1990 a Paris court ordered a blood test. Montand refused. On 6 September 1994 the Paris tribunal de grande instance declared him Aurore's father, citing his refusal and "la grande ressemblance de la jeune fille." That made her an heir. His heirs, his adopted stepdaughter Catherine Allégret and Carole Amiel, mother of his only son Valentin, born 31 December 1988, appealed. A test against Valentin showed no shared father. The Drossarts contested it. In 1997 the Paris Court of Appeal ordered the body exhumed. On the night of 11 March 1998 Montand was dug up and sampled at the Paris forensic institute. Valentin was 10. On 11 June 1998 three experts reported "non-paternité." The Drossarts' appeal to the Cour de cassation, argued by Gilbert Collard, was rejected in 2001. In 2004 France amended its civil code to bar DNA identification after death without consent given in life^†. In 2026 Valentin Livi is Montand's only recognised child.