Ellen ten Damme keeps saying that she no longer wants to talk about Ali B, but she still spoke to RTL Boulevard extensively about the abuse case yesterday. “Why is she doing that now?”
It is an annoyance for Ellen ten Damme: she wants to promote her work in the media, but at the same time does not answer questions about the abuse case against Ali B. The rapper was convicted in the first instance of attempted rape of the singer, and on appeal the Public Prosecution Service is trying to have him convicted of actual rape.
‘Don’t look at it’
Ellen speaks about it in front of the camera RTL Boulevard. “I find it very annoying when I have to talk about that case every time, because I am not involved in it at all. I don’t even look at it. It seems more like the media is mainly concerned with it.”
She continues: “I understand that they want to hear this and find it interesting if it contains well-known names, but I don’t find it interesting at all and in fact: very bad, because the law has to do its job and nothing else.”
‘It’s not true!’
Ellen tries to let it pass her by. “I occasionally get information from my friend who occasionally reads something, but I don’t look at anything myself. I even try to avoid it.”
According to Ali, he didn’t rape her at all, she just cheated on him. “That is not true at all. What you are saying is not true.”
She concludes: “I really hope that it all blows over soon, because honestly there are much worse things going on. A number of people in my immediate environment are seriously ill and that also requires attention and that puts things in a different perspective.”
Why now?
Bridget Maasland wonders why Ellen is so candid now. “I understand very well from Ellen that at a certain point you just want to move on, but unfortunately the case is still ongoing.”
She continues: “Of course, she recently indicated to Radio Veronica that she never actually wants to talk about it again. Why does she now choose to say something about it for the last time?”
‘She wants to continue’
Reporter Aran Bade has the answer. “Yes, well, because she wants to continue and that has to do with this story, that she says: ‘Well, come and ask some questions about it. I want to say something about it of course, I can’t avoid it’, but what you see is a kind of self-defense, right, because she laughs a bit…”
Luuk Ikink: “Discomfort.”
Aran: “It is an inconvenience, but it is also a defense against what you just heard in the video. It will only be said about you, right? And that has all been going on for four years. She wants to move on. She says: ‘I am a musician, a theater maker, I want to get promoted and not really talk about this story anymore.’”
Promise
Ellen also did not report the crime, according to Aran. “But only made a statement. She says: ‘I was promised then that I would never have to talk about it again.’ Yes, of course it doesn’t work that way, especially not when you are in the media, but I do see a strong woman who on the one hand laughs it off, but on the other hand it is self-reflection.”
Bridget: “I don’t think she actually wants him to be upset about it.”
Aran concludes: “Yes, I think it is indeed.”
