Leonardo, the now 15-year-old victim of Bilal Wahib, has moved TV viewers with his personal story at Humberto Tan’s talk show table. Yet there is also criticism…
He was only twelve years old when he pulled down his pants during a well-attended live stream with Bilal Wahib: Leonardo. The young lad was challenged by the actor, who promised him seventeen thousand euros. It turned out to be an extremely misguided joke. The result? Leonardo was rejected by all his friends. Bizarre.
Leonardo on TV
Leonardo did not want to respond for years, but did so yesterday in the talk show Humberto. He is still having a really hard time with it emotionally and had to interrupt his story several times at the table. How many times in the last two and a half years has he been able to say that he is doing well? “Twice. On holiday.”
Leonardo talks in detail about the evening of the incident. His entire family was at home with corona and Leonardo was alone in his room when it happened. He didn’t dare say anything to his parents. “Eventually one of my brothers turned on the TV downstairs and then I heard the news about me and that thing, so I was shocked. I started crying.”
‘Mom was in shock’
It wasn’t until that evening that Leonardo mustered up the courage to tell his parents. “My mom literally couldn’t talk anymore, I just saw her crying. I told her I was that guy from TV. My mother couldn’t talk and neither could my father. I never saw my parents cry. So painful to see my parents crying. I never saw them cry, man.”
Does he still have his friends from back then? “No. No one. I got beat up by my own best friend. He joined in with those other young people who bullied me. They participated. I lost my very best friend too, all because of this. (…) Yeah, no friends anymore… Well, f*cked up, man.”
Helping children
Leonardo has been at home for four months, but is currently taking acting lessons. And he has a mission. “If I am strong, I would like to be able to help children who experience something like this – but I hope no one does – and show them: you must do this, you must do that. All those things I’ve done, that they can do it too.”
Many viewers are moved by Leonardo’s story and praise him for his honesty and candor, but there is also fierce criticism of host Humberto Tan in particular. “Extremely disgusting of Humberto to put that poor boy at the table. This is not worth seeing,” says X-influencer Mies.
Chasing ratings
It’s all for the ratings, says Erik. “How sad TV is, especially because of the rush for viewing figures… That invitation from that little guy about ‘Bilal-gate’ is unacceptable. At the very least: protect such a little guy from your crazy medium.”
Esther: “Dear Humberto, I had hoped that you would have brought this important subject into the spotlight in a way without damaging this child further. Reliving his pain on national TV is not that way…”
Most people have a predominant respect for Leonardo: “You have courage to be on TV. Well done and good luck boy!”