Everyone knew but no one did anything? This is somewhat the feeling that dominates in view of the PPDA affair, started in February 2021 after the first complaint by the novelist Florence Porcel for alleged acts of rape. Since then, the judicial machine has been set in motion, dozens of other women have been heard by the authorities and the former TF1 journalist has just filed a complaint in turn for slanderous denunciation against 16 of them. While everything suggests that the first channel – as well as the small television journalistic medium – was aware of the totally unacceptable behavior of its star, nothing was done to prevent it from continuing. His colleague Frederique Lantieri testifies in turn to the scandalous attitude of Patrick Poivre d’Arvor.
Interviewed by the magazine Further investigation on France 2 – broadcast on April 28 and a huge audience with 1.72 million viewers and a market share of 19.3% among the general public – Frédérique Lantieri was able to testify to the decried behavior of PDDA with the women. In 1980, she is a 20-year-old trainee on TV and comes across the journalist who quickly decides to take her “under his wing for two days“. At first, everything goes well… “It was very flattering. He had to take me everywhere with him. I even think we had lunch together. He really took care of me. He must flirt with me a little, but he doesn’t make inappropriate gestures. He gives me compliments“, she says. Then, a few weeks later, she is treated to letters and phone calls that leave the professional field. “He was making a little more pronounced advances to me. I declined very simply and it ended there“, she adds.
But with Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, nothing remains without consequence when the women do not give in to his advances… Thus, Frédérique Lantieri crosses paths again a little later when she is this time a trainee for the Paris Daily. She finds herself attending a political program on Antenne 2.”We are waiting for PPDA to finish the newspaper, because the show takes place on exactly the same set. He finishes. He comes out like a king, like a star. He knows a little about everyone (…) Suddenly, he sees me. Very loudly in front of everyone, he said to my editor: ‘What the hell is she doing there? Did you take it? We didn’t want her!’“, remembers the host. A bitter and terrible moment to live for the one who is only a young woman seeking to find a small place in journalism. “Everyone looks at me, in my memory. Me, I don’t know what to answer“, she said, adding that he had obviously wanted “humiliate him” for “get revenge“. And she claims to know why: “Because I declined his offer.“
During the report, Further investigation also collected the chilling testimony of “Mathilde”, the last woman to have filed a complaint against PPDA, on April 27, 2022 for rape. She recounted the sexual assault she allegedly suffered in 1995 in the journalist’s office at TF1, when she was 24 and a young graduate. Will these multiple testimonies, often very detailed, finally convince Jean-Pierre Pernaut or Claire Chazal, who are the few to have taken a position in favor of Patrick Poivre d’Arvor?
PPDA remains presumed innocent of the charges until the final judgment of this case.