“PPDA was the nuclear heart of the TF1 machine and the editorial staff”, remembers Estelle Youssouffa. The journalist was a presenter on LCI, the news channel of TF1. She describes a man “omnipotent, almost deified by the editorial staff, very protected, a bit like Lagerfeld at Chanel”. In the 1990s, the emblematic glass tower of TF1 was the theater of the omnipotence of the presenter, where his taste for women was a subject of joke.
“He spotted the very beautiful women, and he hit on them. He hit on them heavily.”
Estelle Youssouffa, former presenter on LCIto “Further investigation”
A taste that would have gone further than simple seduction, testifies Estelle Youssouffa. She claims to have witnessed insistent requests from the star presenter to several of her colleagues. “There was a notebook that was available for all the editorial staff to join; PPDA could access all the numbers, and did not hesitate to do so.”
The “20 Hours flirt” would have even recovered the address of a journalist to go to his home. According to Estelle Youssouffa, she only obtained peace after her husband intervened. “This friend met PPDA at work, she says to him clearly and repeatedly, many times ‘niet’… well, he continues to harass her. It goes to the point where he tumbles, him, PPDA, all star of the 20 Hours that he is, downstairs from her house.
“[Il est] at the door, screaming for love, and she has to ask her husband to come down to drive him away, because PPDA demanded to be able to come up.”
Estelle Youssouffato “Further investigation”
To escape the fiery messages of Patrick Poivre d’Arvor and his insistent calls, his colleague was forced to change the number, continues Estelle Youssouffa: “Because he didn’t hear her refusal.”
Extract from “PPDA, the fall of an untouchable”, a document to see in “Complément d’Enquête” on April 28, 2022.
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