In 2011, François Busnel caused controversy by inviting the author Delphine de Vigan to his show The Great Bookstore on France 5. Very complimentary vis-à-vis his guest whose novel he found Nothing stands in the way of the night “absolutely extraordinary” and “totally out of the ordinary“, the creator of the magazine America seemed totally conquered by the writer. But if he pretended not to know his guest intimately by using you throughout the interview, he was in fact already in a relationship with her at the time of the recording of the show. A deception which did not go unnoticed by the journalists of Release and Charlie Hebdo who accused the journalist of a conflict of interest.
“I asked myself the question, but I really believe in separating private life from professional life. I choose my guests from France 5 on two criteria: Did I like the book? Is everyone talking about it? (…) I am wary of the dictatorship of transparency. Should I penalize the woman I love because she is the woman I love?“, had explained François Busnel when he had been invited to respond to these accusations with the magazine Freeze frames at the time.
For her part, Delphine de Vigan also wanted to defend herself against Pascale Clark on France Inter. “We know that on the radio or on television, lots of people who know each other, who have slept together one day or have flirted with each other, invite each other and receive each other (…) I have files.“Annoyed, she had admitted not having been comfortable in front of her companion during this interview:”I’ve never felt so pitiful on a TV set, but not for ethical reasons. Simply because I was too moved, because I was in front of the man I love. Somehow it’s not tenable.“
This controversy, however, has not tainted the happiness of the couple who are still in love ten years later. Asked by Entertainment TV, François Busnel again made a beautiful statement to his companion whom he absolutely does not regret having invited at the time. “We were then at the beginning of our relationship. Delphine’s book [Rien ne s’oppose à la nuit, ndlr] appeared on the lists of the 4 grand prix and it was number 1 in sales since the end of August. We hesitated, then we decided, with the direction of France Televisions, to make the emission without speaking about our private life. Today she is the woman of my life, I did not know it at the time“, he confided, reiterating once again the very strong love that unites him to the writer.