Paris (AFP)

Alexandra de Taddeo, recipient of the intimate videos of Benjamin Griveaux, assured to have kept traces of these images only to "protect", and affirmed not to have taken part in their diffusion by his companion Piotr Pavlenski, in an interview diffused Sunday on M6.

In this exclusive interview, the first granted by Alexandra de Taddeo, of which extracts were shown in the "12.45" of the channel, before a long version which will be broadcast at 5:20 pm in the magazine "66 Minutes", the russophile student tells the circumstances in which the former macronist candidate for mayor of Paris sent him the famous videos.

"For a long time, I followed Benjamin Griveaux on social networks like many other politicians ... and he added me in the middle of April 2018 on Facebook Messenger to start a conversation," said Alexandra de Taddeo.

After having exchanged a lot, "we met at my place once, it was a somewhat disappointing meeting", "an exchange which takes shape in a physical way" and "adultery follows", she continues.

"The intimate videos arrived later, he was the one who sent them naturally, I didn't ask him for videos," added the interviewee, who said she no longer remembered their number. She explains that she recorded it "because it was important to keep track of the fact that it was he who asked me mainly". "It was a protective measure," she says.

Did it take part in their dissemination? "No of course," she swears, claiming to have discovered after the fact that they were put online by Piotr Pavlenski.

While admitting to being aware of the project of "pornopolitics" site, via which Piotr Pavlenski revealed the videos, she assures that she did not think that they would appear there, confirming the version of the facts given to the investigators, according to information obtained by AFP.

"At the time of the broadcast, he showed me the article (revealing the videos, editor's note), at that time, I was obviously angry", but "I understood the process and that's why that I said to Piotr: OK, you did that, I continue to support you ... ", she said.

"It remains that a story of photos, of pornography, we see it every day ... Everything that there has been around this affair seems to me disproportionate," confides still Alexandra de Taddeo, who was indicted and placed under judicial supervision, which deprives her in particular of all contact with Piotr Pavlenski.

The interview was carried out shortly after his release from police custody by the journalist Milan Poyet, who acted with the utmost confidentiality, before offering this document to M6.

"She is a young woman who is undergoing a major media storm, and she has lent herself to the game because she simply wants to express herself," he explained to AFP, ensuring that the interviewee, who was accompanied by her lawyer, had made no conditions for this interview.

"No question has been avoided," said Stéphane Gendarme, director of information for M6.

In addition to "66 minutes", extracts from the interview will be broadcast in "19.45" on M6 and at 6:00 p.m. on RTL.

© 2020 AFP