Zofia Merle kept it a secret for years. It was about the daughter of the “Klan” star.

On December 13, 2023, the legendary theater, television and film actress Zofia Merle died at the age of 85. She has appeared in productions by many outstanding directors, including: with Jerzy Antczak, Kazimierz Kutz and , and her roles have been permanently recorded in the history of Polish cinematography. She gained the greatest popularity and recognition thanks to , she starred in such hits as “What will you do to me if you catch me”, “Miś”, “Zmiennicy” or “Alternative 4”. Younger audiences may remember her from the series “Na dobre i na evil”, “Złotopolscy” or “Klan”, in which she played the unforgettable Stefania Wróbel-Malec.

Zofia Merle is dead. The actress’s son was struggling with cancer

Despite many successes on the screen, fate did not spare her in private. Merle married her colleague, Jan Mayzel, and the fruit of this union was a son, Marcin, who was born in 1971. The family led a relatively peaceful and happy life, and the actress was considered an extremely cheerful and optimistic person. – She had incredible energy and wit. The power of more than a few people put together! She was direct, but we liked that. It loved! And extremely friendly. Class that many people lack today – recalled Tomasz Stockinger in an interview with . Everything changed when Marcin was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, from which he died in 2013 at the age of 43.

For Merle it was an unimaginable blow. She could not come to terms with the fact that she had outlived her own child, and in the face of the family tragedy, her career ceased to have any meaning for her. She withdrew from public life and although in the following years she occasionally appeared on the screen, playing episodes, she never decided to fully return to her profession. Over time, she also began to get sick, and her only support in difficult times was her husband. When Jan Mayzel died in December 2021, the actress broke down again, and due to her health condition she was not even able to attend his funeral.

Zofia Merle hid this secret. The actress’s first husband was not Jan Mazyel

Since her husband’s death, Merle has been completely lost. When Rafał Dajbor started working on the book “My husband is a director by profession. Or jak u Bareja 2” he decided to contact her to ask her for an interview, after all, she was one of the most famous stars in the director’s productions. However, negotiations with the actress were difficult because for a long time she claimed that she had nothing to say. In the end, however, she was persuaded, but she made the matter clear from the beginning.

I would love to talk to you about my cooperation with Staszek Bareja, but it all happened so long ago that I don’t remember anything about it. I want you to know that since my son died, words such as theatre, film, television, radio, dubbing, stage and cabaret have become just empty sounds for me, meaning things that I never want to have anything to do with again. And you can write that in your book

– writer. It turns out that the death of her beloved son and later her husband were not the only blows the actress had to face. Throughout her career, she hid a secret that even those closest to her kept silent about. When Merle married Mayzel, she was already a divorcee, and the fruit of her first marriage was a daughter. Their relationship was reportedly complicated and stormy. According to , they did not maintain contact with each other for many years due to the conflict, but the artist never decided to reveal what separated them and did not want to discuss this controversial issue in a conversation with the author of the book.