She has become one of the most emblematic figures of our small screens. So much so that Anne-Sophie Lapix, who is celebrating her 50th birthday on April 29, 2022, should have moderated the debate between two rounds of the presidential elections, on Wednesday April 20 on France 2 and TF1… if Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen did not oppose it. The advantage of such notoriety is that the journalist is entrusted with professional missions of the utmost importance. But fame hasn’t always been all good.
During the summer of 2002, while presenting the show Theatrical release on the Cinéstar channel, Anne-Sophie Lapix had suffered very disturbing harassment from a student. After sending him numerous threatening e-mails, Jean-Loup Hahn had simply sent him an envelope containing white powder to make it look like a dose of anthrax. “It was a hoax, a role that I gave myself, to fill the time” he explained during his hearing. Sentenced to six months in prison in the fall of 2005, the young man did not only attack the host. Alas.
At first I was in love, but frustration took over
At the same time, Jean-Loup Hahn was tried for a case even more sordid than that suffered by the wife of Arthur Sadoun. He was in pre-trial detention for the murder of a 20-year-old student named Julia Bastide. In love, the accused had sent tons of e-mails to his victim to describe to him, in detail, every outfit she wore every day to intimidate him. He ended up losing his mind, a little more, and murdered his victim with a rifle in the middle of the classroom on June 22, 2005. “At first I was in love, but frustration took over”, he defended himself before the president of the Assize Court of Orleans. Sentenced to life in 2007, Jean-Loup Hahn finally benefited from a reduced sentence, for a total of 30 years in prison. Anne-Sophie Lapix’s story had a slightly happier ending…