Multiple Miss France winners were raped and sexually assaulted after winning the title, an insider has alleged in a new book.
Hubert Guérin, deputy to the contest’s former president, Geneviève de Fontenay, included the allegations in his new book exposing the competition behind the scenes.
He told French media last week that he had begun the work in 2020 with the agreement of the late longtime president of the Miss France Committee.
‘Miss France, from dream to reality’ shares the accounts of ‘about ten’ former Miss Frances who said they had been assaulted, according to The Times.
One pageant winner was reported to have said: ‘I was raped a few hours after being elected Miss France: in my room, I was pushed against the bed, called every name under the sun, and my dress was torn off.’
The author told RTL radio: ‘We’re facing a competition that crushes, crushes young girls.’
‘We’re talking about all types of aggression: it goes from hand-to-buttocks to sexual assault, that is to say, very concretely, forced fellatio, rape, breasts being felt up in a group photo, et cetera.’
In sum, as many as 60 Miss Frances and regional elected officials came together to testify in the book, which hit shelves this week.
No former competition winner has taken legal action, which the author blamed on ‘omertà’ – a code of silence – and pressure.
Speaking on W9, Guérin accused ‘members of the Miss France organisation’, including some ‘senior executives still in office’.
The accusations do not name the alleged attackers.
However, one former winner accused the author of making up quotes attributed to her.
Camille Cerf, who won the pageant in 2015, said she had never spoken to the author.
‘I’ve never spoken to Hubert Guérin; what he says about me is false and completely fabricated,’ she wrote on X.
‘His comments are very serious, and I don’t intend to let him do that. During my year and for the past 10 years, the Miss France Organization has always protected me.’
Sylvie Tellier, who was named Miss France in 2002, said she was never called to testify.
She also said that she had never heard of such assaults within the organisation.
‘If during my 15 years at the helm of Miss France, I had been informed of harassment, sexual assaults, the first thing I would have done is to encourage them to file a complaint,’ she said, as reported by RTL.
‘Writing a book like this, without facts, without dates, is to throw a whole mess over the Miss France organization.
‘That is not how you do justice. You don’t do justice in a book, you do justice in court.’
The book has nonetheless sent shockwaves through France and prompted wider discussion of the topic.
Ludivine Langlois, who was Miss Nievre in 2016, said that she also experienced sexual harassment at the separate pageant when she was 19.
She told Le Parisien that a volunteer who ‘had power in the competition’ sent her inappropriate text messages including ‘Are you still a virgin, Ludivine’ and ‘You know, sometimes in a sexy outfit you don’t leave me indifferent lol’.
‘Hubert Guérin’s accusations have brought back buried memories,’ she told the outlet.
The Miss France Society said in a statement ahead of publication that it had ‘taken note of the reported allegations of sexual violence and attacks on the integrity of the candidates, which allegedly took place between 1990 and 2002, without naming the people concerned.’
‘We cannot judge the veracity of these allegations, which according to the author, correspond to a period before the takeover of the Miss France Company by Endemol , then by the Banijay group, it is specified.
‘Nevertheless, if they were proven, these facts would touch on subjects which concern us all deeply: the safety, dignity and respect of each woman.’
