Targeted by a preliminary investigation for domestic violence, popular M6 host Stéphane Plaza was placed in police custody this Tuesday, March 12, after being questioned in a Parisian police station,
Le Figaro
learned from police sources.
While the accusations of three of his ex-partners in Mediapart, last October, led to the opening of this investigation by the Paris prosecutor's office, Stéphane Plaza now had to explain these acts of violence to investigators.
His custody, which lasted 24 hours, continued this Wednesday morning.
It could be extended to 48 hours.
Le Figaro
takes stock of the affair.
Accusations of violence
At the end of September 2023, the Mediapart information site published the testimonies of three women, who present themselves as ex-partners of the media real estate agent.
They then claim, with SMS support, that Stéphane Plaza showed pressure, mistreatment and humiliation towards them.
All three accuse him, in particular, of having been manipulative, by having several serious relationships coexist at the same time, without them being informed.
A few days later, on October 10, the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation into domestic violence.
At the heart of the testimonies, two of these women - who filed a complaint - also recount physical violence.
One has already filed a handrail for this in September 2022, following a violent episode during which the host allegedly refused to give her the keys to her home.
During previous episodes, she was also the victim of bites to the thigh and shoulder, outside of any sexual context.
The other, presented under the pseudonym Jade, evokes an altercation which took place at her home.
The young woman, who would have had a relationship of several years with the host, reports three broken fingers, after the host violently twisted her hand:
“A fracture of the ring finger with bone tearing, and two dislocations at the joints of the middle and index fingers
,” reports Mediapart.
She also recalls a blow from Stéphane Plaza to the shoulder which allegedly threw her to the ground, during a vacation with him in Provence.
The third ex-partner, for her part, relates having ended their relationship after five months after being threatened by Stéphane Plaza, drunk during a romantic weekend in Vienna, Austria, when she had just discover he was cheating on her.
Throughout the testimonies, the person concerned is portrayed as a sanguine, unpredictable man, capable of falling into black rage.
Online harassment
Opposite, the host of real estate shows cries defamation.
His lawyer, Ms. Hélène Plumet, denounces
“defamatory and insulting accusations”
against him, in a press release.
“Mediapart acted as a relay for three women who undermine the dignity”
of Stéphane Plaza, she indicates,
“thus making themselves complicit in the public denigration against the latter, while they are targeted by a criminal complaint that he filed (against them) for harassment and cyberharassment.”
Guest of the TPMP show, her advisor, Ms. Hélène Plumet, returns to the case on December 1st.
She then denounces the moral harassment of her companions towards Stéphane Plaza.
“He’s been harassed for a year and a half.
It started with an ex-partner who thought he was cheating on her.
She searched through her phone, found numbers of several women, whom she contacted.
She then began to divulge rumors about him
,” she explains, before specifying that her client filed a complaint for these facts in November 2021. According to Stéphane Plaza, the situation would have worsened subsequently, when a second ex-partner would also have started to spread rumors on social networks, about alleged STDs of which he was a carrier.
“In the chronology, it is he who suffered harassment,”
assures his lawyer, who specifies that a complaint, this time, was filed for harassment and cyberharassment against X, in November 2023, the ex-partners being suspected to use fake profiles on Instagram –
“very serious methods”
, she pointed out.
During the sequence, Me Hélène Plumet also returned to the violence of which he is accused, in particular the broken fingers of one of the complainants.
“It was an accident.
Stéphane Plaza is clumsy, he is the first to get injured on set.
He wanted to leave the home, and he grabbed her hand to pass
,” she maintained, before mentioning
“hundreds of messages”
which, according to her, attest to the fact that the women never mentioned violence from the part of the animator.
“These are messages where they alert him to the fact that he is unfaithful.
But it is not criminally reprehensible.”
M6 internal investigation
For his part, Nicolas de Tavernost, the boss of the M6 channel announced, on November 6, that the internal investigation carried out after the complaints about his host did not result in any evidence justifying his suspension.
“We commissioned an internal investigation inside M6 with all the people who work with Stéphane Plaza. The same thing was done at (the audiovisual production giant) Médiawan. These two investigations did not provide any evidence that would justify a sanction against Stéphane Plaza
,” explained the director of the channel, Nicolas de Tavernost, on BFM Business at the time.
“Even, on the contrary, his colleagues rather support him
,” he explains, confirming that the star host, whose shows continued to be broadcast despite requests for deprogramming from feminist activists, will
“remain on air"
.
A few weeks later, Stéphane Plaza came out of a long silence and returned to the case on social networks:
“I ask you to wait, as I am doing, for Justice to be done to clear my honor.
I have a clear conscience, I continue and will continue to defend the cause of women.”
This Tuesday, a few hours before being heard by the police, the host reiterated his remarks in a post, without mentioning the hearing, congratulating himself on being able to
“express himself for the first time”
.
And added:
“This fleeting moment will soon be nothing more than a distant memory.”