Le Mai - The biological mother of People's Artist Le Khanh: All her life is devoted to the theater stage, still living in the same house with her ex-husband after divorce

Meritorious Artist Le Mai comes from a family with a tradition of artistic activities. Her childhood years were attached to the land of Hai Phong estuary, where her father grew up and did artistic activities.

Her father is poet-playwright Le Dai Thanh, active in the Central Drama Team at the same time as The Lu and Song Kim.

In addition to composing art, he was also a teacher, his students later had many famous people such as writer Nguyen Hong, writer Nam Cao. Her mother's name is Dinh Ngoc Anh. Ms. Dinh Ngoc Anh was also a theater actress in her husband's troupe of Gio Bien (Le Dai Thanh). Le Mai's two younger brothers also made a name for themselves in the art field: painter Le Dai Chuc and director, meritorious artist Le Chuc.

In 1954, she followed her father to Hanoi to receive a job in the Central Theater Troupe led by writer and playwright Hoc Phi at that time.

After that, she asked to work at the Hanoi Opera troupe. Not only participating in roles on the stage, she also appeared in TV series and feature films such as: Bitter Flower, Unfinished Sunset... leaving many impressions on television audiences even when they met her in real life.

It is known that here, Le Mai met and married artist Tran Tien (later People's Artist). The couple has 3 daughters together Le Van - Le Khanh - Le Vi. Life in the subsidy period was difficult, the economic burden was pressed on the shoulders of two people, making the couple's feelings gradually fade. Meritorious Artist Le Mai shared: "He was in the Ox age, I was in the Tiger age, so he was easy to be born. At a young age, he quarreled a lot, so married life was very tiring at that time."

At that time, although only over 30 years old, Meritorious Artist Le Mai agreed to sign the divorce decision. Around that time, the youngest daughter Le Vi was only 3 years old.

The divorce of People's Artist Tran Tien and Meritorious Artist Le Mai does not mean divorce. Because of the poor economy, there is no money to buy a house of their own, so even though they are both divorced, People's Artist Tran Tien and Meritorious Artist Le Mai and their children still have to live together in an apartment of only 24 square meters.

The house is divided in two by a wall. People's Artist Tran Tien is on one side, the other side is the place of Meritorious Artist Le Mai and 3 daughters. Determination has nothing to do with each other's lives, what each person does, but because they have to live in the same house, there are certain things that must be shared. Arguments, jealousy, and conflicts continued.

When asked about the details of People's Artist Tran Tien and Meritorious Artist Le Mai, although divorced, they still ate together and sometimes even slept in the same bed, written by their eldest daughter Le Van in her autobiography, Ms. Le Mai honestly answered. replied: "It's because of the situation and also because I want the children to still have the love of their father and mother. Moreover, he can't cook by himself, so every meal time, the children call their father out to eat. sometimes the children relented, influencing the parents to get back together, but that was only the first time, because after that, it did not improve the parents' situation, so my children did not mention it. This too, but fully support the divorce of parents."

Later, to avoid contact, Meritorious Artist Le Mai moved down to the kitchen. During the day, she would bring the kitchen out to cook, and after cooking, she would bring it in and store it under the bed. When Le Van bought a 360 m2 house in Thuy Khue (Hanoi), the whole family moved there. People's Artist Tran Tien is at the front of the house, Meritorious Artist Le Mai is at the end of the row.

People's Artist Tran Tien and Meritorious Artist Le Mai only really lived a divorce when their eldest daughter Le Van got married. Meritorious Artist Le Mai moved to a house on Phan Dinh Phung Street and lived next to Le Khanh's daughter's house until now.

Sacrifice your dream of becoming an artist to fulfill your children's dream

Three years ago, in the program "Our Sisters", People's Artist Le Khanh told a touching story about his mother - Meritorious Artist Le Mai, a veteran artist of Vietnamese theater and television.

According to Le Khanh, her mother was an artist in the past, so her salary was very low. At that time, she always had to work hard, earn every penny to take care of her family, not take care of herself.

"One day, my mother was only 34kg, to the point that she couldn't play the main peach, had to play the supporting role. How can a person with 34kg still wear beautiful costumes on stage? My mother has to knit very thick sweaters to wear, then also put on a cotton shirt, put on a bra to make people look bigger and the last layer is a costume", People's Artist Le Khanh said.

After performing, artist Le Mai had to quickly take off her stage clothes to take care of her children. Walking on the street, people kept staring at her. At first, she thought people should recognize her as an artist, but later on, she discovered the tragic story that people looked at her not because they recognized her but because she was wearing a padded bra.

Because she was too embarrassed, artist Le Mai decided not to go on stage or screen anymore, step back, do all jobs to support her family, keep her husband and three children as an artist. "My mother buried her dream of being an artist to fulfill our dream," the female artist said.

After the sacrifices for her children, in the late afternoon, Meritorious Artist Le Mai was at peace with her children and grandchildren. She told about her life more than 2 years ago: "I live alone in Phan Dinh Phung street, Hanoi. My health is very good, I go to the market to cook rice every day. In the past, I lived with Le. Vi was in Phu Thuong, after that, when Le Vi returned to France, I gave Le Khanh a house.Le Vi lived in France, only returned once a few years. I went to visit 4 times and declared, Mother just left, not coming anymore. Le Van lives in Thuy Khue with her Dutch husband and children.

In the past, I did a lot of business, got a lot of land, so I also bought a bit of land, 360m2 in which Le Van was living. At that time, I could not buy forever, so I had to drink tea and say: "I went all over West Lake but couldn't buy a piece of land", so someone said, my brother is selling here. And then, I bought land with 15 gold trees. It's also the end number."

NSƯT Lê Vân: Biểu tượng nhan sắc của "Mỹ nữ Hà Thành" xưa, 2 lần "gãy gánh", ấm êm ở tuổi xế chiều An Nhi17:14:17 07/07/2023NSƯT Lê Vân là một trong những nữ diễn viên không chỉ tài năng mà còn xinh đẹp thuộc thế hệ đầu của nền điện ảnh cách mạng Việt Nam. Sau nhiều thăng trầm, hiện tại chị đã có cuộc sống bình yên và giản dị.