"I didn't take it seriously": Beigbeder reacts again to the Matzneff affair

"All of us in the literary world are guilty of failing to assist people in danger," confessed Frédéric Beigbeder at the beginning of January. His role as juror of the Renaudot Prize in 2013, which had consecrated Gabriel Matzneff, was questioned. This time, the writer and columnist reacted to an archive from 1995 where we see him, facing the camera of Thierry Ardisson, lightly evoking the pedophilia of the novelist. Over twenty years old, they are taken from the show "Paris Dernier", which filmed the nights - often frivolous - of the capital.

Read also: Christophe Girard: “Matzneff says that I am one of his best friends. It's a bit excessive ”

"We are going to sleep Gabriel with a 12 and a half year old girl" , launched the presenter. Frédéric Beigbeder had fun with it. Interviewed by the Huffington Post , he explains: "I found myself several times at his side in front of cameras and I joked with him because I have never seen him with underage girls." The author of 99 Francs concedes having shown "frivolity and inconsistency" and pleads the "misunderstanding" . "I didn't take it seriously," he claims. Similar remarks to those made last January.

"The most cruel for the victims is to have consented"

In The Consent , an autobiographical novel, the editor Vanessa Springora describes how she was seduced by Gabriel Matzneff, almost fifty, when she was not 14 years old. "When I read it, I understood that his 'schismatic passions' [the title of one of the works in which the author unreservedly talks about his pedophilia, Editor's note] were in reality infinitely dangerous and painful manipulations" , puts forward Frédéric Beigbeder.

Matzneff, Ardisson, Beigbeder joke together happily. The subject ? Kidding kids 12 ½ years old. pic.twitter.com/vRfUl129Ft

Before analyzing: “I should have understood that the most cruel thing for victims of pedophiles is to have consented. What is most painful is not having said no, but having said yes ” .

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