Latest news with #Hanouna
Spectator
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Was this right-wing TV host joking about taking on Marine Le Pen?
A controversial and wildly popular right-wing television star says that he orchestrated a 'prank' that he was about to jump into the French presidential race. Cyril Hanouna is a foul-mouthed and hugely influential television star. His politics are messy, his delivery erratic, but he has a vast audience and momentum. He's anti-woke and talks a tougher line than Le Pen on immigration. News of Cyril Hanouna's potential presidential candidacy set France's media ablaze, with comparisons to Trump and Zelensky, media stars who leapt into politics. But was it a prank, as Hanouna later claimed, or a calculated test of the waters? The evidence suggests the latter. Hanouna admitted emailing 30 contacts about his supposed candidacy, expecting at least two to leak it. 'You let it infuse,' he said, 'give a couple of people fake assignments, and wait.
Local France
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Local France
French right-wing TV host fans talk of presidential bid
A star of France's right-wing media and close to the billionaire media mogul Vincent Bolloré, Hanouna teased listeners to his Europe 1 radio show that he would tell the "truth" about his intentions on Tuesday or Wednesday. His comment came after the hard-right weekly Valeurs Actuelles stunned France earlier this week by printing what it said were parts of his manifesto. READ MORE: Laughs, scandals, politics? France's most shocking TV host moves on "There is a front page going around," Hanouna, 50, told his listeners Monday. "And it's setting fire to everything." Valeurs Actuelles described the manifesto as "revolutionary, disruptive and iconoclastic". It reportedly includes a "French Guantanamo" similar to the US military base in Cuba known for holding suspected Islamist militants that President Donald Trump's administration is now using to detain undocumented migrants. Hanouna also wants a minimum monthly salary of €2,200 to €2,300 and to replace all ministries with one super ministry in an efficiency drive. The star told listeners that the article the magazine printed was "not an interview" and it shouldn't be taken as an announcement of his candidacy. While Europe 1 drew parallels between Hanouna and how President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comic actor, suddenly burst onto Ukraine's political scene, others have compared him to the Italian comedian-turned-politician Giuseppe Piero "Beppe" Grillo, founder of the Five Star Movement. The presenter would not take a salary as president, according to the magazine, and would moderate major democratic debates to decide policy. Advertisement Hanouna also plans to build a padel court in the gardens of the Élysée Palace, the weekly said. The radio host is apparently obsessed with the fast-growing racket sport. A multi-millionaire, Hanouna was reported last month to be dating President Emmanuel Macron's 41-year-old step-daughter Tiphaine -- despite being an outspoken critic of the French leader. France's 2027 presidential election remains a wide open race, with Macron unable to stand for a third time and far-right leader Marine Le Pen potentially unable to stand due to her conviction in a fake jobs trial. Jordan Bardella, the 29-year-old leader of Le Pen's party who would stand if she was barred, said on Tuesday he "does not believe" Hanouna will be a candidate while saying he had "lots of respect" for his work.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
French right-wing TV host fans talk of presidential bid
Provocative French radio and television host Cyril Hanouna has the country guessing Tuesday over whether he will run to be president in 2027. A star of France's right-wing media and close to the billionaire media mogul Vincent Bollore, Hanouna teased listeners to his Europe 1 radio show that he would tell the "truth" about his intentions on Tuesday or Wednesday. His comment came after the hard-right weekly Valeurs Actuelles stunned France earlier this week by printing what it said were parts of his manifesto. "There is a front page going around," Hanouna, 50, told his listeners Monday. "And it's setting fire to everything." Valeurs Actuelles described the manifesto as "revolutionary, disruptive and iconoclastic". It reportedly includes a "French Guantanamo" similar to the US military base in Cuba known for holding suspected Islamist militants that President Donald Trump's administration is now using to detain undocumented migrants. Hanouna also wants a minimum monthly salary of 2,200 to 2,300 euros ($2,617) and to replace all ministries with one super ministry in an efficiency drive. The star told listeners that the article the magazine printed was "not an interview" and it shouldn't be taken as an announcement of his candidacy. While Europe 1 drew parallels between Hanouna and how President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comic actor, suddenly burst onto Ukraine's political scene, others have compared him to the Italian comedian-turned-politician Giuseppe Piero "Beppe" Grillo, founder of the Five Star Movement. The presenter would not take a salary as president, according to the magazine, and would moderate major democratic debates to decide policy. Hanouna also plans to build a padel court in the gardens of the Elysee Palace, the weekly said. The radio host is apparently obsessed with the fast-growing racket sport. A multi-millionaire, Hanouna was reported last month to be dating President Emmanuel Macron's 41-year-old step-daughter Tiphaine -- despite being an outspoken critic of the French leader. France's 2027 presidential election remains a wide open race, with Macron unable to stand for a third time and far-right leader Marine Le Pen potentially unable to stand due to her conviction in a fake jobs trial. Jordan Bardella, the 29-year-old leader of Le Pen's party who would stand if she was barred, said Tuesday he "does not believe" Hanouna will be a candidate while saying he had "lots of respect" for his work. reb-pr-cma-sjw/as/fg
Local France
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Local France
Laughs, scandals, politics? France's most shocking TV host moves on
Although the 50-year-old is bowing out after 14 years of hosting TPMP, which stands for "Touche Pas a Mon Poste" ("Don't Touch My TV Set"), the Paris-born celebrity has never featured so prominently in the national spotlight. His future has become a subject of almost daily speculation, following repeated reports that he has political ambitions and admires entertainers-turned-leaders such as Beppe Grillo in Italy or Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. "Journalists do their job like I pick my nose," Hanouna said about the media speculation during a February edition of TPMP, a bearpit of entertainment, current affairs and stunts that media experts say regularly spreads disinformation. Given his influence over his millions of young, working-class fans, who admire his crude humour and swagger, the self-confessed populist has become a target of left-wing political parties and critics. Earlier this month, sympathisers leapt to the defence of the son of Jewish Tunisian immigrants after he was featured on a poster from the hard-left La France Insoumise party that critics said recycled anti-Semitic tropes. In further news that lit up social media, the multi-millionaire was reported by magazine Paris Match last week to be dating President Emmanuel Macron's 41-year-old step-daughter Tiphaine -- despite being an outspoken critic of the French leader. Advertisement The magazine, which published a photo of the pair eating together, described it as "an improbable alliance between a woman of reason and a provocateur." Hanouna stated this week that he was "single", without directly addressing the issue. READ MORE: France's right-wing TV news grilled by lawmakers Media darlings The man nicknamed "Baba", who grew up in Paris' northeast suburbs and retains the area's distinctive accent, began his career as a clownish character and comedian on French radio in the early 2000s before moving on to national TV. In one clip still doing the rounds, he can be seen thrusting his nose into a dog's private parts. He began TPMP in 2010 on France 4 before transferring it to private channel D8, which would become C8 under the ownership of conservative media magnate Vincent Bollore, a key patron of Hanouna and far-right politicians. Advertisement Flanked by co-hosts and pundits, whom he calls his "darlings", Hanouna leads TPMP in a casual but sometimes aggressive style, always looking to latch on to news items that will create clashes and "le buzz" online. The penultimate edition of TPMP on Tuesday night featured a segment on whether women should be allowed to wear Islamic headscarves while doing competitive sport, with 90 percent of viewers voting against it in a poll. Hanouna says the key to attracting audiences that peaked at 2.5 million people a night is reflecting issues that people care about. Advertisement "Everytime you take the side of the people, you cause upset. And we take it pretty much all the time," he explained to viewers in February. Homophobia? Since March 3rd, he has been obliged to broadcast TPMP on the internet after he almost single-handedly caused C8's licence to be revoked by the French media regulator, taking the channel off the air. The channel had been fined €7.6 million over TPMP. The biggest of them -- a record -- was for an extraordinary shouting match broadcast in November 2022 that saw Hanouna call left-wing MP Louis Boyard, a former pundit on his show, a "shit" and a "buffoon". C8 was fined €3 million over a 2017 sketch which was judged to be homophobic after Hanouna placed an advert for gay hook-ups then broadcast the conversations with respondents live. Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, a communications expert, told AFP that Hanouna had become a sort of French version of US podcaster Joe Rogan, with a similar appeal to working-class voters who increasingly vote far-right. "From the end of 2022, there was a big change, with a far more political output close to the far-right," he told AFP. A book about Hanouna earlier this year by leftwing researcher Claire Secail accused him of being a demagogic populist at the head of "an entreprise of disinformation that threatens the foundations of our democracy". After the end of TPMP, Hanouna is apparently destined for privately-owned TV channel M6 and Fun Radio later this year -- but journalists there have protested his arrival and reported special restrictions in his contract that could be a source of friction. "I'll be the one who decides, no-one else," he said this week about his future programmes.
Telegraph
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Brigitte Macron's daughter starts unlikely romance with president's nemesis
Brigitte Macron's daughter has struck up an unlikely romance with a controversial French television host who blames the French president for cancelling his show. Tiphaine Auzière, 41, has been pictured with Cyril Hanouna, 50, the creator of a hit evening talk show whose sensationalist tactics and hard-Right penchant forced its host channel permanently off the air last month. The reported liaison between the bearded bad boy of French TV and one of the French first lady's three children from her first marriage is said to have started after Mr Hanouna, nicknamed Baba, recruited her to his panel as a legal commentator last year. Paris Match, the celebrity magazine, broke the story of their supposed entanglement in a front-page spread with a photo of them together at a restaurant in Paris's chic 8th arrondissement. 'A beautiful story, more than a passing fling,' it gushed, adding that Ms Auzière had revealed her 'blossoming love story' to her mother this month. 'At the Élysée they were stunned,' it added. Ms Auzière has two children, aged eight and nine, with consultant physician Antoine Choteau. The couple reportedly split in January. The palace did not react to the Paris Match report. Mr Hanouna has remained uncharacteristically tight-lipped about the report and Ms Auzière has offered no public reaction either. However, the magazine said her mother had been supportive regarding the 'improbable alliance between a woman of reason and a provocateur', which appeared to prove that 'opposites attract'. Ms Auzière is a lawyer and novelist and last year published Assises, a book about a courtroom drama exploring the legal ramifications and responses to domestic abuse. Mr Hanouna, of Tunisian-Jewish descent, was the host of Hands Off my Telly (TPMP), which dominated the early-evening ratings for much of its 14-year run. 'Those who know Tiphaine describe her as well-behaved and thoughtful. The opposite of the volcanic Cyril. While she weighs every word with care, they pour out in torrents from him, a born chatterbox.' Adding piquant to the alleged romance, Mr Hanouna recently accused Emmanuel Macron of having a hand in French television authority Arcom taking him off air by cancelling the broadcast licence of C8. It is owned by Vincent Bolloré, a conservative tycoon who uses his media empire to back Marine Le Pen's hard-right National Rally. Ms Le Pen slammed the decision as an act of 'political censorship'. Mr Macron insisted it was not a 'political decision' and has denied having a direct hand in the move. TPMP had racked up a total of €7.6 million in fines for offences including using vulgar language to insult a Left-wing MP, along with homophobia, misogyny, anti-Islamic content, conspiracy theories and overall Right-wing bias. The show is now limited to the internet but remains popular, with two million subscribers on YouTube. Paris Match was owned by Mr Bolloré until last year, when it was acquired by Bernard Arnault, head of the LVMH luxury empire and Europe's richest person. Earlier this month, the Elysée issued a rare warning to Mr Bolloré against his media empire's pro-Russian tilt after his Sunday paper JDD accused Mr Macron of seeking to panic France in an address to the nation when he described Russia as a 'threat' to all of Europe. 'In this serious period... everyone must ensure that the facts are perfectly accurate,' it said. 'The moment demands clarity, patriotism and a sense of national unity.' In its report this week, Paris Match said Ms Auzière had 'acquired her independent spirit' from weathering the scandal that was the love affair between her mother and Mr Macron. The French president was just 15 when he fell for his married drama teacher, Brigitte Auzière, then 40, at the Catholic Providence school in Amiens in the early 1990s. 'And so history is repeating itself,' the magazine said. 'Just like Brigitte Macron in earlier days, love is the most powerful motor for freeing oneself from the rules of one's universe.' In an interview with The Telegraph last year, Ms Auzière said the most important piece of wisdom her mother passed down to her was: ''Be an independent woman'. By independent she meant 'free'; that you should be free to make whatever choices you want in life.' She also said: 'I think I've managed to stay pretty anonymous really, and to live happily is to live anonymously.' Mr Hanouna's show has appalled and fascinated in equal measure in France. In 2018, he gave the first television platform to the Yellow Vests populist uprising against the Macron government. Last week Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the radical Left Unbowed France party, was accused of anti-Semitism after his party put Mr Hanouna's face on an AI replica of an anti-Semitic 1940 Nazi poster for the propaganda film The Eternal Jew. 'It's a caricature that takes us back to the darkest hours,' Mr Hanouna said on Europe 1 radio, also owned by Mr Bolloré and where he hosts a daily show. The party removed the caricature but did not apologise. Not everyone is convinced the supposed romance between Mr Hanouna and Ms Auzière is real. Le Point magazine cited a source close to Mr Hanouna as saying: 'There are no revealing photos in the report. And frankly, Cyril very often invites certain members of the team to dinner in the evening, after the show, it's his habit. It's nothing new…' Others pointed to the fact that the pair left separately and that Mr Hanouna seemed 'more intent on eating his pasta' than gazing into Ms Auzière's eyes. Social media commentators also suggested the entire situation may have been set up by Mr Hanouna to deflect attention from a report by Mediapart, which released a recording of him on Friday allegedly insulting and threatening to beat up a columnist during a break on his show in 2023. Others said it may be his way of 'getting a foot in the Elysée' and making overtures to Mr Macron after their bust-up. 'Next thing, he'll be minister then president,' one quipped.
