Le Pen rival loses court battle to hide child with adviser, 28
ERIC ZEMMOUR, the television commentator and potential hard-right candidate in France’s upcoming presidential elections, is expecting a child with his 28-year-old adviser, according to reports.
The 63-year-old, who is married, failed to block the French tabloid magazine Closer from breaking the story yesterday, when it featured a photo of him and his adviser, Sarah Knafo, walking hand in hand alongside the headline “Zemmour to become a daddy in 2022”.
Mr Zemmour responded to the article by writing on social media: “Whatever happens, always and everywhere, I will fiercely defend my private life and that of my relatives. Public life, yes. Voyeurism, no. Sorry for the perverts.”
Mr Zemmour’s lawyers tried to block the story, but a Paris court ruled the request inadmissible.
In a statement, his lawyers lashed out at the magazine without denying the article’s claims: “The magazine Closer has just published, against all the rules of journalistic ethics, an article seriously infringing on the privacy and the right to image of Mr Eric Zemmour and Ms Sarah Knafo.”
The lawyers also said they planned to file a new lawsuit against the magazine for violation of privacy.
France has strict privacy laws which makes it a criminal offence to publish information about a person’s private life without their consent.
Despite an initial jump in the polls that saw him neck and neck with the far-right party leader Marine Le Pen, Mr Zemmour’s numbers have hit a plateau in recent weeks.
Current figures suggest Mr Zemmour would take 14 per cent of the vote in the first round of next year’s presidential elections compared with 18 per cent for Ms Le Pen. Mr Macron, meanwhile, remains with a comfortable lead to take 24 per cent of the vote in the first round.
‘Whatever happens, always and everywhere I will fiercely defend my private life and that of my relatives’
The longtime television commentator and writer, who has yet to officially declare his candidacy for the presidency, is best known for his contentious views on immigration and Islam.
A Eurosceptic, Mr Zemmour wants to reimpose border controls within the EU and ignore rulings from the European Court of Human Rights.
France’s Closer magazine is no stranger to controversy, having successfully been sued by the Duchess of Cambridge, and Julie Gayet, the lover of former president Francois Hollande, for invasion of privacy.