Patrick Poivre d'Arvor | |
|---|---|
 Patrick Poivre d'Arvor at the Cannes Film Festival | |
| Born | Patrick Jean Marcel Poivre (1947-09-20)20 September 1947 (age 78) |
| Education | Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales: non-graduate. Sciences Po Strasbourg Sciences Po Paris |
| Occupations | Journalist, writer |
| Notable credit(s) | Le Journal de 20 Heures de TF1, onTF1, Vol de Nuit onTF1, La Traversée du miroir onFrance 5 |
| Spouse | Véronique Poivre |
Patrick Poivre d'Arvor (PPDA;néPatrick Jean Marcel Poivre,French pronunciation:[patʁikʒɑ̃maʁsɛlpwavʁdaʁvɔʁ]; born 20 September 1947) is aFrench TV journalist and writer. He is a household name inFrance, and nicknamed "PPDA". With over 30 years and in excess of 4,500 editions of television news to his credit, he was one of the longest serving newsreaders in the world until he was fired in 2008. He presented his last newscast onTF1 on 10 July 2008.Since 2021, a total of 27 women have accused Patrick Poivre d'Arvor of sexual assault or rape that would have allegedly happened during decades prior. Seventeen women filed a formal complaint. Among them, eight did so for alleged rape.[1]
Patrick Poivre was born inReims, France. He obtained hisBaccalauréat at 15, the year he became a father. He then studied Oriental Languages at theInstitut national des langues et civilisations orientales and Law. Poivre claims to be descended in the male line from Jacques Poivre, brother ofPierre Poivre, an 18th-century nobleman in the time ofLouis XV, "d'Arvor" being Jacques Poivre's pseudonym. Poivre, his siblings and his three surviving children legally changed their surname toPoivre d'Arvor in 1994.
Poivre started training as a journalist at the Centre de formation des journalistes (CFJ) at 22. He obtained his first job in 1971 onFrance Inter as morning newsreader.
In 1974, at the time ofValéry Giscard d'Estaing's accession to the Presidency, Poivre joinedAntenne 2. He made his first TV appearance there in 1975, and was presenter fornews bulletins from 16 February 1976 to 28 July 1983. After a brief stint withCanal+, he joinedTF1 in 1986 for the Sunday programA la folie pas du tout andEx Libris, fromFrederic Lepage.
On 31 August 1987, he became presenter for the weekday news ofTF1 at 8 pm from Monday to Thursday. He is satirised in the French puppet showLes Guignols de l'info onCanal+, where hisalter ego is the puppet PPD, thenews presenter. In 2004, Poivre was cast in a minor voice-only role as a newscaster in the French version of thePixar animated filmThe Incredibles (Les Indestructibles).
On 9 June 2008, it was announced that byLaurence Ferrari would replace Poivre d'Arvor as presenter of the 8 pm news.[2] He made his last broadcast on 10 July. In an interview, he said that there was "no objective" reason for his dismissal, but declined to comment on "rumours" of political interference.[3]
Since January 2009, Patrick Poivre d'Arvor presentsLa traversée du miroir onFrance 5. He also presentedL'avis des autres onArte.
In July 2009, he was approached by theI-Télé channel to presentThe18h-20h. But he declined the invitation.
In June 2010, he led a team in the French TV showFort Boyard.
His greatest controversy prior to his being accused of rape was the faked interview[4] - actually footage of a press conference with added questions - he purported to have made with Cuban presidentFidel Castro, broadcast on 16 December 1991.Télérama journalistPierre Carles exposed this fraud, which Poivre blamed on his colleague and co-interviewer Régis Faucon, after the latter had departed TF1.[5]
On 10 January 1996, theCourt of Appeal sentenced Poivre to 15 months in prison (suspended) and fined him 200,000Francs for his part in misappropriation of public funds in a case involving Pierre Botton and his father-in-law and then deputy mayor of Lyon,Michel Noir.[6]
In December 2008,Nonce Paolini, former Chief Executive ofTF1, filed for defamation against Poivre d'Arvor in the Correctional Tribunal of Paris: during an interview byBretons in the preceding July, Poivre had accused the TF1 chief of having "installed a clocking-in system with access badges" and had formed "a private police force whose aim was scrutinising staff movements in the smallest detail".[7]
Poivre participated to the promotion of financial placements in letters and manuscripts for french companyAristophil, which appeared to be a Ponzi scheme.[8] In november 2015, Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, former sponsor of the Aristophil museum, recognized he was offered manuscripts and 400 000 € from Aristophil's headGérard Lhéritier.[9]
He married Véronique Courcoux in 1971, with whom he had six children. They divorced in 2010. He has three surviving children from that marriage and one son from an affair with fellow news-anchorClaire Chazal. His and Véronique's son Arnaud, spoke about the divorce of his parents in 2010 in the Magazine Gala. One daughter, Solenn, committed suicide at a Paris metro station in 1995, aged 19, having been a long-term anorexic. Her plight became a symbol of the problems ofanorexia andbulimia, with Poivre becoming a campaigner and writer on the issue. In December 2004,Bernadette Chirac, wife of former PresidentJacques Chirac, whose daughter also suffered from the disorder, opened atreatment centre in Paris for adolescents and named it "Maison de Solenn".
Poivre caused controversy by presenting his regular news bulletin the evening after Solenn's death.
For several years in the 1990s, rumours abounded that Poivre had had an affair withClaire Chazal, his weekend counterpart as TF1 8 pm news presenter. The pair refused to confirm the story until August 2005, when Poivre acknowledged in "Confessions", a book of interviews to journalist Serge Raffy, that he was the father of Claire Chazal's 10-year-old son, François. "We had set at [François' age] ten the time that this story would be revealed", Poivre said.
In February 2021, the prosecutors' office inNanterre confirmed that Poivre was under investigation due to allegations of rape by a female writer, Florence Porcel, on several occasions between 2004 and 2009, as reported in her autobiographical bookPandorini.[10][11] He was formally charged of rape in December 2023.[12]
He has published many books, two of which are dedicated to his daughter Solenn. He has also written prefaces to books by other authors, and these are not listed here.
