Former France international Richard Dourthe has been embroiled in a scandal after a social media influencer published a video of him lifting up her skirt at a town party.
The incident occurred at a bar during the Féria de Dax, an annual festival, which this year took place between August 13th and 15th in the town of Dax in south-west France.
In the video, which was posted by Charline Prudeau, a French lifestyle influencer, a man “whom she identified as Dourthe”, according to the town’s legal prosecutor, lifted up her skirt while dancing on a table in the bar.
The 23-year-old then reprimanded Dourthe before looking into the camera.
The video, which has racked up more than a million views on TikTok, was posted with two captions. The first: “You just want to enjoy yourself, but it’s impossible again because... men.” And: “I hope that your wife sees this, you fat pig. So sick of having to stop living because of you, I won’t shut up.”
In response to the backlash, which includes Prudeau filing her own complaint for “sexist behaviour” and has been extensively covered in the French media, Dourthe on Wednesday released a statement, via his lawyer, announcing that he is lodging a defamation complaint and denying that his behaviour was “sexist” (a term literally translated from French but which could include sexually offensive behaviour in UK law).
The statement claimed that the “young woman had lifted her friend’s skirt” before Dourthe was involved and that the video did “not show the young woman placing her posterior at shoulder level with men who were having a drink together”.
The statement also said that Dourthe apologised immediately.
[Source: The Telegraph]
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