On the accusations of being docile, Mathieu writes in her autobiography that she and Johnny Stark understood each other. She wanted to be a singer, and he was tired of people who just wanted to be famous. They were both hard workers, and he kept her schedule filled with lucrative contracts. She also writes that she was forbidden to read the press, and, having peeked at some of it, was content to follow that rule. Stark, of course, had a heavy hand in manipulating the press. Mireille writes that her mother was often surprised to read on the front page that she was engaged to someone famous, or was going to be in a movie by some famous director. Her guiding principle was just to sing, and never have her family return to the tenements of "Croix des Oiseaux".