It’s a video of almost 40 minutes that Hilona Gos published on her YouTube channel on February 26, entitled “My truth with Julien”. Hilona Gos, influencer and reality TV candidate, seen in particular in “The Marseillais Vs the Rest of the World” or “The Princes and Princesses of Love”, reveals in this video to have suffered violence from Julien Bert, her ex-spouse and fiancé. “And then he snatches the phone from me. His look has changed. He had black eyes He raised his hand, he strangled me, he lifted me off the ground. I couldn’t breathe, ”explains the influencer, in tears. She mentions threats, insults, and that he would have strangled her several times, especially when drunk.
Clips of the video have since been posted on social media, but for many the accusations come as no surprise. Many Internet users have thus begun to relay extracts from several reality TV shows where the former couple appears, and in particular their disputes. On several occasions, Hilona talks about what Julien Bert “did to him”, it is a question of “being forgiven”, and the insults are shown as classic “clashes”, specific to this type of program. However, the arguments evoked by Hilona and Julien have a taste of influence, of psychological violence. Around them, the other candidates are silent.
A vision of the toxic and violent couple
On the side of reality TV candidates, some side with Julien Bert. But few speak out. The main interested party responded to the accusations by blaming Hilona Gos: “When you get out of a difficult situation you don’t move heaven and earth to go back, it’s the best proof in the world”. A reaction aimed at demolishing the arguments of his ex-spouse.
Julien Bert is a major player in the world of reality TV. Since 2013, he has been doing a series of shows, from “Marseillais” to “Angels” to “Princes of Love”. In these different programs, he connects the conquests, the deceptions, and shows an image of a dominant, charismatic man, with a strong sympathy capital… But capable of very violently insulting the other candidates, and in particular the women he frequents. The vision presented to the spectators (often very young) of these programs of the heterosexual couple is often that of a couple where jealousy and influence are acceptable, violence is trivialized there. The women are presented there as teases, the men as Don Juans. Moreover, as the author Valérie Rey-Robert explains in Reality TV: the factory of sexism, sexism and class contempt vis-à-vis reality TV candidates contributes to the invisibilization of their speech as victims of gender-based sexual violence.
What is the responsibility of the productions of reality TV shows?
In a long thread, journalist Constance Vilanova states: “By involving Bert in Objective rest of the world and to fifty, by relaying “clashes” which were much more than that in a program scrutinized by thousands of teenagers, the production romanticized and normalized the violence. She failed to protect a victim. Watching the first season ofObjective rest of the world, we knew, we felt it, we normalized ”. Julien Bert has participated in at least three programs since the first acts of violence mentioned by Hilona Gos, which would have taken place in 2019. In extracts from the program “Objective: Rest of the World”, broadcast in 2021 on W9, the disputes between Julien Bert and Hilona Gos mention violence, without them being directly mentioned.
As Constance Vilanova explains, the violence must have been evoked in front of the cameras, and was undoubtedly cut during the editing.
This is not the first case of sexist and sexual violence in the world of reality TV. Already in 2021, a #MeToo of reality TV had started to grow on social networks, with accusations of sexual assault against Illan Castronovo, star of the small screen. Since then, the latter has decided to sue Alix Desmoineaux, one of the voices of this #MeToo reality show, for defamation. A way to continue to silence the victims of this environment where, even if everything is filmed, the violence seems invisible.