Sylvia had just turned 16. At the time, in May 1989, she was a fan of Nicolas Hulot. He is 34 years old. He is a successful presenter who travels the world. His show “Ushuaïa”, broadcast every week on TF1, is followed by millions of viewers. She claims to have written a letter to Nicolas Hulot to show him her admiration. In return, he would have invited her to attend the recording of the radio program “Antipodes”, which he presented on France Inter on May 27, 1989. After an invitation to breakfast, he would then have offered to drive her home. On the way, she claims that Nicolas Hulot sexually assaulted her. We transcribe below his remarks delivered in the program “Special Envoy”.
“From the moment we leave the studio, we are both all the time. He asks me a lot of questions: to know if young people are touched by his cause, by his person. I am ultra-intimidated, it is still the first public person I see so close, and there is a certain intimacy in a breakfast.
The interview ends and then he asks me how I get to my suburb. I tell him ‘I’m going to take the metro, I’m going to the Pont de Sèvres‘. And he offers to drop me off at a metro station. I go up with him, he takes the road to drop me off on the Trocadero esplanade. We say goodbye. When it comes time to say goodbye, he asks me to kiss him on the neck. And I don’t know why I’m kissing her on the neck. (…) I step back and he starts the car again. He does not say anything. And there he starts to tell me: ‘Did you dream about it? What is happening? Did you know it would be like this?‘
I remember not making a sentence. In fact I tell him ‘No‘. I tell him ‘No‘. [Il me dit] ‘But what did you want?‘ Me : ‘I do not know.‘He stops afterwards, in an open-air parking lot, we are not in an underground, we are in an overhead parking lot. And there, he takes out his penis. It’s going pretty fast, he undid his pants, he took out his cock, he took my hand, he asked me if I had ever done it with boys, if I was used to this kind of hugs and I say: ‘No‘. I know that several times I get back in my seat, I take my hand away. I remember being in a state of misunderstanding, actually.
“He had one hand that took my hand and that was on his cock, and with the other hand, he wanted me to kiss him, that I kiss his cock. He forces me to give him a blowjob, that I do not not really doing it because I think I’m paralyzed, actually. “
Sylviain “Special Envoy”
I don’t really understand what he wants. I have never done it. I’m wondering if this is it, a romantic relationship, in fact. Since I’m a fan of him, I can’t tell myself that what is happening must not happen, that it is something wrong. I’ll think about it very quickly, but not in the car. I remember that to make it stop, I kiss her lower stomach. Because I know I’m stuck, actually … And since I don’t want to do what he wants me to do, I remember snuggling up where I won’t do what he wants That I do. And I remember retiring to the back of the seat. “
At one point when I am back against the seat, there is a woman and a man who have passed, and I know the woman had a very insistent look on me and she tried to look at the person who was next to me. of me. But they have passed.
He didn’t say anything, he restarted, we left and he dropped me back at the Trocadéro where he said a sentence that will haunt me for years: ‘Put on a little make-up because we can see that you have done things. ‘ That’s all he’s telling me. I remember going for it. Go. Don’t turn me around at all. Tell me ‘What just happened? What is it, in fact, what just happened?‘I didn’t get an answer the same day, actually. I oscillate between ‘So this is it? Did I seduce? Is it normal ? Do adults have these relationships?‘
On the other hand, I immediately choose to hide it. Because inevitably, there are people at the end of the road who will tell me ‘Then ? What was it like, Nicolas Hulot?‘There, I am already starting to build myself this shell that I will keep for thirty years. Today, I speak to free myself. I have to get out of this car. “
Extract from “Nicolas Hulot: women accuse”, broadcast in “Special Envoy” on November 25, 2021.
The facts described by Sylvia are time-barred. Nicolas Hulot is presumed innocent. “Special Envoy” reporters contacted him and his lawyers on several occasions. He refused to answer their questions in front of a camera. His lawyers also declined interview requests. They let it be known that their client strongly disputes the facts, and more generally claims to have never assaulted a woman in his life.
Reached by phone on November 9, 2021, Nicolas Hulot says: “I am devastated, I have never had ambiguous relationships. (…) You know very well that it will be word against word. The word of men is called into question, so it is no longer even worth defending yourself. (…) Not because I fear what I have done, it is so abject, so odious, so far away from what I have always been and from what I am (.. .). And how do you want me to remember? I especially remember what I never did. I have never in my life coerced into anything, anyone. Never, neither close nor by force. When we do not feel, that we do not seduce, or that we are not seduced, we stop there, it is like that since the dawn of time. (…) I am not going to counter-attack [en disant] that they’re all liars, stuff like that. I do not know. What I know is what I never did. But when you’re innocent like I am, innocent in a way you can’t even imagine … You’re trapped anyway, no matter what you say, speaking is suspect. Whatever we say. Here is. We cannot defend ourselves. We cannot defend ourselves… Because in this legitimate, necessary fight of women, the word of women is sacred, and there you have it.“
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