Duhamel case: incest, a phenomenon that is still taboo
Audio 06:31
In "La familia grande", Camille Kouchner accuses political scientist Olivier Duhamel of incest.
AFP - JOEL SAGET
By: Jean-Baptiste Marot Follow
9 min
Political scientist Olivier Duhamel is at the heart of an incest scandal.
He is accused of having abused his stepson when he was a teenager.
This is what Camille Kouchner, the daughter of former minister Bernard Kouchner and the daughter-in-law of Olivier Duhamel, reveals in a book to be published on January 7.
Is incest still taboo in France when one in ten French people claim to have been a victim?
Interview with Isabelle Aubry, president and founder of the association Face à inceste.
Publicity
In
La familia grande
to be published by Editions du Seuil, Camille Kouchner, the daughter of former minister Bernard Kouchner recounts how her twin brother was sexually assaulted by their stepfather when they were teenagers.
"
I was 14 years old, I knew and I didn't say anything
", writes Camille Kouchner, now a lawyer and 45 years old, about the sexual assaults that her twin brother would have suffered for several years.
She wasn't the only one in the know.
From 2008, other members of this family of renowned Parisian intellectuals and their entourage learn what happened.
Some cut the bridges, many, including their own mother, find excuses in Olivier Duhamel.
Everyone is silent to avoid the scandal and no one denounces the political scientist.
Today, the facts are prescribed, but Camille Kouchner still wanted the truth about this man who partly raised her and her brothers to come to light.
"
Why would he have the right to live outside of this reality when it haunts me?"
», She explains in her book
La familia grande which
she wrote with the agreement of her brother.
His father, Bernard Kouchner, praised his courage: "
A heavy secret which weighed on us for too long has been happily lifted,
" said the former minister.
Olivier Duhamel, he refuses to comment and has decided to resign from all his functions.
He was president of the National Foundation for Political Science, but also host on radio Europe 1 and columnist on LCI.
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