Matzneff case: after Vanessa Springora, another victim comes out of silence

Francesca Gee is now 62 years old. When she discovered the impact of Vanessa Springora's book, "Consent", which describes her relationship under the influence of Gabriel Matzneff, the former journalist first thought: "She did the job, I didn't more to worry about. "

But almost three months after the publication of the book, this other victim of the pedophile writer Gabriel Matzneff decided to break the silence by granting, this Tuesday, a long interview to the New York Times. Its French translation is available here.

In this interview, she recalls the three years spent with the writer, when she was 15 and he was 37, then how he used, against his will, his image and his letters in his writings, including in his essay defending pedophilia “The under-sixteen”.

"He has not stopped using me to justify the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents," she wrote in a manuscript refused in particular by Grasset, editor of "Consent". From this experience which she describes as a “cataclysm”, she had indeed drawn in 2004 a work… refused by all the editors asked.

Like Vanessa Springora before her, Francesca Gee first met Gabriel Matzneff in 1973, when she was with her mother, and lived with him three years. With the approval of his parents.

Meetings with the former Minister of Health

It was the shock caused by the publication and the success of the "Consent" that led her to break the silence. "A week or two later, I realized that I was totally part of this story," said the former journalist, who is currently working on a new manuscript after spending years asking for photos of herself and her children. old letters to be removed from Matzneff's works.

In the interview, Francesca Gee also evokes the former Minister of Health, Michèle Barzach (1986-1988), gynecologist by profession, claiming to have consulted her half a dozen times, always in the company of Matzneff, when she was minor, especially to be prescribed the pill.

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PODCAST. Matzneff affair: how Vanessa Springora rebuilt herself through writing

The publication at the beginning of the year of Vanessa Springora's autobiographical novel provoked an electric shock, highlighting the subject of sexual violence against minors and the complacency which Matzneff benefited from in the literary world. In 2013, he won the Renaudot essay prize.

The 83-year-old writer, who has long claimed his attraction to the “under 16” and sex tourism in Asia, said at the end of January “to regret” his past pedophile practices, while arguing that “at home” era "," no one ever spoke of a crime ".

Targeted by an investigation for rape of minors, he took refuge in Italy when the scandal broke out. He is to be tried in September 2021 for “apology” for pedophilia.