“I didn’t know, I have no reason to lie or hide“, declared Gilles Bouleau in the emission We are live after the broadcast of a number of Further investigationdevoted to the PDDA affair, on April 28 on France 2. But the assertion of the current presenter of TF1 is today undermined by one of the complainants.
The website of Mediapart brought together 20 women who accuse the former king of TF1’s 20H news of alleged acts of sexual assault, harassment or rape. They spoke in a video broadcast unveiled on May 9, 2022. Among them: the journalist Helen Devynck. Former assistant to Patrick Poivre d’Arvor from 1991 to 1993, she filed a complaint for a rape which was allegedly committed in 1993. She claims to have alerted the bosses of the group later – the former CEO of TF1 Nonce Paolini supports their approach – the behavior of their star presenter. “People from TF1 today, I saw them, I saw Gilles Pélisson [PDG de la chaîne, NDLR]I saw Thierry Thuillier [directeur de l’information du groupe, NDLR], I spoke to Gilles Bouleau, he was the first to whom I spoke to TF1 before testifying publicly, he believes me, he absolutely believes me. He told me ‘I don’t fall out of the cupboard’“, she reveals.
For Hélène Devynck, Gilles Bouleau’s reaction poses a problem because his answer suggests that he possibly had an idea of the way Patrick Poivre d’Arvor behaved with women, but without saying anything about it. “And there it’s complicated, because when you’re told: ‘I’m not falling out of the cupboard’, does that mean what did you know without knowing? What did we see without seeing?“, she wondered. Perhaps Gilles Bouleau had an idea of the reputation of PPDA but not of the serious facts which arise today. “I think there are plenty of people who were in the editorial staff, like me, and who didn’t know. I didn’t know, I have no reason to lie or hide. I have no animosity or protection to bring to PPDA, I did not know“, he said in We are live.
After the first complaint filed by the novelist Florence Porcel in February 2021, a slew of revelations fell on the TF1 group, accused of having turned a blind eye. In The Parisianformer assistants had for example revealed that internally her former office within the chain had been reclassified as “Patrick’s McDo“, to refer to his overflowing consumption of young women…
PPDA, which filed a complaint against 16 women for slanderous denunciation, remains presumed innocent of the charges until the final judgment of this case.