The Illan Castronovo affair continues to shake the reality TV scene.
In recent days, several testimonies have come to consolidate the speech of Alix Desmoineaux, ex-candidate of the show "Les Marseillais".
She explained that she saw a video in 2019 in which a reality TV candidate tried to force a minor to have sex in front of other people, the latter joking and seeming not to take the measure of the gravity of the situation.
If Alix Desmoineaux did not mention the name of the assailant in the video, eyes quickly turned to Illan Castronovo, 28, on the bill for the new season of "Princes and Princesses of Love" ( W9).
Several young women indeed accuse the candidate of harassment, exhibitionism and sexual assault, and claim not to have been protected by the production companies of reality shows, revealed Checknews, Liberation fact-checking unit.
For his part, Illan Castronovo repeats that these allegations are not proven and claims to have lodged a complaint for defamation.
We take stock.
Testimonials are piling up
Alix Desmoineaux's statements brought back events that had already been recounted in the past.
“If this video comes out you'll be really in trouble (…).
You want to play with minors, ”said Anthony Alcaraz, another reality TV star, in a Snapchat video intended for Illan Castronovo, in May 2019.
A month later, on the set of a show by Youtubeur Sam Zirah, well known in the reality TV scene, Nathanya Sion confided in the subject of Illan Castronovo.
One morning, after spending the night with her, the young man allegedly insisted on having sex.
"I tell him I won't sleep with him and he masturbates next to me."
(…) I was very uncomfortable.
I felt soiled, ”she said.
In December 2019, another reality TV star, Cynthia Khalifeh, had described reprehensible facts during a filming of the show "Moundir and the apprentice adventurers" (W9). “When someone touches himself in front of you, it's a sexual assault,” she said in her interview with Sam Zirah, without naming a particular candidate. After the recent speech by Alix Desmoineaux, the young woman clarified that it was indeed Illan Castronovo. “I was (
alone
) in my cabin, it was dark. He comes in, starts to touch himself, doesn't want to stop, doesn't want to leave. I went mad, I screamed. "
In January 2020, another reality TV candidate, Léa, contender for Illan Castronovo in "The Princes and Princesses of Love 7" (W9), had told on her Snapchat account, having suffered repeated requests for oral sex from of the candidate.
Checknews also heard the testimony of a candidate present on the set of the show "The Princes and Princesses of Love 5", in 2017, and who claimed to have suffered unwanted touching on several occasions from by Illan Castronovo.
The latter was also accused of revenge porn, in the spring of 2020, by two of his former girlfriends, Hilona Gos and Giuseppa Ciurleo.
Legal proceedings launched
In her Snapchat story, Léa indicated that she had lodged a complaint against Illan Castronovo.
This complaint was, however, dismissed in September 2020, because "the searches carried out by the police services to hear the applicant, from the address information provided by the latter" have "remained in vain", explained the prosecution of Lyon at Checknews.
Nathanya Sion, for his part, filed a complaint on December 7 in Paris against Illan Castronovo.
"It's been three years that I have been called crazy, I can no longer hear him discredit me, use his seductive side, now I want to confront him", she explained to the cell. fact-checking of Liberation.
Another legal procedure was initiated, this time at the Nice prosecutor's office. Jonathan Matijas, candidate of reality TV, deposited there a letter denouncing facts of a criminal nature, according to article 40 of the Code of penal procedure, indicates Checknews. He claims to have been made aware of the existence of the video to which Alix Desmoineaux spoke publicly by the person who filmed it and recorded a conversation with this individual. “You can't compare your stories and a video of a rape with kids (…) the video we're talking about, you can put him in jail (…) it's so big, it's going to end up in court”, him says the author of the video, according to Checknews. "This file was received yesterday (
Thursday
) to my prosecutor's office ”, confirms to the Parisian Xavier Bonhomme, the public prosecutor of Nice, who specifies having seized the departmental security of the DDSP 06 for investigation.
"It is first of all to verify our territorial jurisdiction, that is to say to seek where precisely the facts would have been committed", underlines the prosecutor.
Illan Castronovo denies outright
Illan Castronovo was quick to deny the accusations about the video. In “Touche pas à mon poste”, the day after Alix Desmoineaux's intervention, he claimed to be “totally serene”. “There are bloggers who said they were going to release this video. Me, I invite them to release the video. Like that, I will be cleared, because it does not exist ”, he explained then. His version has changed somewhat since then. "There is a video where I say
you're not funny I'm going to see your girlfriend
, and where indeed there is sexual intercourse, but everyone is major and consenting, we laugh," he assured at Checknews.
After the article appeared in Liberation, the young man reacted via an Instagram story.
“There are still things being said.
And once again, we speak without proof, without anything, he begins.
I'll tell you something.
I think if I had done serious things, now I wouldn't be eating tuna, ”he adds, a bowl of food in hand.
He, who describes himself as "not someone bad", claims to have "lost everything" after these accusations.
“Now it gets hard.
(…) In history, I have lost everything.
My job, I lost my girlfriend, I lost a lot of money, and it costs me still, I maybe even lost my dignity.
"
Did the production know?
“The production knew it all,” said Cynthia Khalifeh. "For me the culprit is not that the aggressor, it is also the production, also attacked Nathanya Sion with Checknews. I spoke to them about it several times, they replied that they knew. "An observation shared by the anonymous candidate of" Princes and Princesses of love 5 ":" There were witnesses, the production was warned. I was asked head-on if I wanted Illan to leave the show, while telling me that it was going to follow him and maybe ruin his career, and that in addition it would be complicated for them to do so. '' remove during assembly. “When contacted, the productions of this type of program have not yet responded to our requests.
At the head of the Shauna Events agency, which represents Illan Castronovo, Magali Berdah is also targeted by critics.
Especially since last December 8, she participated in a meeting with Marlène Schiappa, Minister Delegate in charge of Citizenship, with the aim of promoting the fight against violence against women on social networks.
"My word carries too much weight, I cannot take sides, I do not want to discredit the words of the victims by defending Illan, nor to accuse him and take sanctions against him without having concrete proof," she said. replied to Checknews.