Recommendations of the Editorial team
Christian Ulmen complained directly when his ex-wife Collien Fernandes publicly accused him of “digital rape”. A lot has developed since then, and the public prosecutor in Potsdam is now investigating the actor. Meanwhile, Ulmen spoke to “ZEIT” for several hours, supplemented by statements from his lawyer Christian Schertz. As the weekly newspaper now made public, the “jerks” star ultimately did not give permission. This means: Not a single quote from the conversation will be published.
Now Collien Fernandes has reacted to the interview withdrawal. “T-Online” she said: “It is of course unfavorable when false statements made are compared with evidence that exposes these lies. Then it might be better to withdraw all of your statements.”
Then the actress and presenter became a little clearer: “I think that slowly, if you still have something like remaining dignity, a conscience or decency, you should publicly stand by what you have done and have already admitted. Everything else is completely undignified. You could have used an interview like that for this, but instead you continued on the path of lies and repression, hoping that you wouldn’t be exposed.”
Ulmen lawyers recommended release and criticized “ZEIT”
Apparently there are different opinions about what journalistic format the encounter between Ulmen and the editors of “ZEIT” was about. Ulmen’s lawyer Christian Schertz’s law firm Schertz Bergmann claims on its X account that it was just a background conversation and not a specific interview. So it was about confidential information.
“After the conversation, our client Christian Ulmen decided against authorizing the disclosure of information and corresponding quotes for personal reasons,” the lawyers said in a statement. As the law firm also made clear, it expressly advised the actor to authorize the thoughts transmitted. In her opinion, it would have been an opportunity to publicly “clarify things and counteract false or distorted representations in the reporting by “Spiegel”.
The fact that “ZEIT” is now reporting on the interview that was ultimately not approved for publication (with the title “Mr. Ulmen doesn’t want to”) consider Ulmen’s lawyers to be journalistically dubious. Confidentiality includes not making something like this public without the consent of the person concerned.
The Ulmen/Fernandes case is about domestic and digital violence. Fernandes accuses her ex-husband of having contacted other men from her business environment under her name in order to then have eroticized conversations. According to her allegations, fake images and video material of her were also exchanged, possibly generated by an AI. Ulmen allegedly admitted his actions to Fernandes. The presumption of innocence applies.