“My gesture is very little compared to what I suffered”: Maïwenn explains why she attacked Edwy Plenel

2023-06-11 00:34:03

“A lot has been said nonsense about me lately.” In an interview given to Sunday newspaperthe Franco-Algerian director Maïwenn explained why she came to assault Edwy Plenelpresident and publication director of Mediapart, in a restaurant last February.

“I do not blame Mediapart for the investigations they have carried out concerning Luc Besson”, assures Maïwenn from the start, referring to the revelations made by the investigation site about her ex-husband. “I blame them for what they did to me.”

“In my life, it’s a cataclysm”

In his interview with the JDD, the director of Jeanne du Barry recounts having met the journalist from Mediapart Marine Turchi in 2018, in order to discuss the accusations against Luc Besson. Maïwenn says that at that time, she had established a relationship of trust with the journalist: “I ask her – to protect my daughter – if, in any case, she can let me know forty-eight hours before the publication of the next investigation. She understands. She gives me her consent”.

But it is in 2021, a few months after a mandatory summons to the police station, that everything changes. “Paris Match is releasing a multi-page article on Luc Besson with a long part of my testimony. And in March 2021, Marine Turchi publishes, without telling me, an article with bits of my hearing. All dependent and used oriented. In my life, it’s a cataclysm,” says Maïwenn.

“He does not want to discuss, nor seek to understand”

“If nothing justifies attacking a journalist, nothing justifies violating a woman’s privacy, cheating on her trust”, justifies the director. “Deep inside me, I can’t help but think that my gesture is very little compared to what I suffered,” she admits.

And what about apologies to Edwy Plenel? “He asked for an apology. I suggested a discussion. He refused. He does not want to discuss, nor seek to understand, but simply that I bow, ”she says. Mediapart’s publishing director filed a complaint against Maïwenn last March.