The writer Yann Moix and his parents clashed this Thursday before the Paris criminal court, with him accused of defamation and insults after he accused them of violence and abuse.
The parents, José and Marie-Josée Moix, launched the procedure after comments made in a Canal + program, En aside, in October 2022. “They are bastards, they are people who would have denounced Jews during the war “, declared the novelist at the time.
He accused them of a multitude of abuses, including beatings and humiliating punishments, describing his parents as "Thénardier" and "barbarians", and specifying that he wanted "the death of his entire family", with the exception of his Grandmother.
At the helm, Yann Moix, 55, fully assumed his words.
“I am speaking out to defend the child that I was,” he said.
“I was molested, beaten, martyred, but for what?
", he asked, describing his mother as the one who "added fuel to the fire with catastrophic reports" about the behavior of her eldest son, and his father as the one who hit him, notably with an extension cord. electric.
His parents, also present in court, seated in the front row in the audience, did not flinch during a long questioning of the defendant.
“Capricious abuse”
Yann Moix published a novel in 2019 about his childhood where he recounted this abuse, “Orléans”.
He pleaded Thursday for the “truth” of this book, while recognizing that it was not always “exact” on the facts, by changing certain places, certain dates, or by concentrating the dramatic effects.
The author's family responded by denying Yann Moix's allegations.
His younger brother Alexandre, in long-standing conflict with him, even claimed to have suffered the abuse described by Yann Moix.
Also read: Beatings, abuse, abandonment… should we believe Yann Moix's autobiography?
“It was capricious, random abuse.
(…) There has not been a week without there being a blow,” Yann Moix told the court.
Questioned by his parents' lawyer about statements in 2006 in which he affirmed: "I am not a child martyr", he replied that they dated before psychoanalysis which allowed him to become aware of the seriousness of mistreatment.
“As Christine Angot says, you don’t choose your stories, you don’t choose the story of your books.
I don’t see why I would have pursued a career as a beaten child,” he explained.