Recommendations of the Editorial team
In an Instagram posting made on Thursday afternoon (March 26, 2026) shortly before the Hamburg demonstration against sexual violence against women, Collien Fernandes made further serious allegations against her ex-husband Christian Ulmen.
She speaks of a “degradation fetish” from which Elmen suffers. In a post spread across several tiles called “Christian Ulmen and the Deepfakes,” she writes:
“What he confessed to me: He had developed a sexual fetish that he couldn’t stop. A degradation fetish. It makes him horny to humiliate me and present me in my professional environment in a way that he knew I would find terrible. That gives him a feeling of power. Power over me. Over the last ten years or so, he has created various fake profiles under my name on social media. He has contacted male users – strange men as well as men from my professional background Environment. He sent a story that he found erotic (more on that in my post from last Thursday). He sent pornographic videos and erotic photos.”
And further: “It was important to him that everything seemed credible and that the material seemed private – as if I had secretly filmed myself having sex and recorded myself naked. He had an intensive online affair with around 30 men under my name, including telephone sex. He promised sexual meetings and canceled them at short notice. He wrote to far more than these 30 men – not everyone agreed to it.”
What is a “degradation fetish”?
According to medical classification, a “degradation fetish” can best be described as a form of paraphilic arousal bond – a sexual preference that deviates from normal social patterns. Sexual excitement is linked to humiliation or the exercise of power. It is crucial to differentiate between consensual practices and non-consensual behavior.
Sexual arousal here is not general, but tied to specific stimuli: humiliation and control. The central component is the excitement caused by the degradation of another person – through hierarchy and targeted devaluation, coupled with the experience of superiority and control.
Fernandes also refers to an extension into the professional environment: not just a private fantasy, but a performance in front of third parties. This is clinically important because it creates social consequences and real harm. Since, according to Fernandes, none of this fetish was lived out consensually, the social and psychological damage to the person concerned would have been accepted – the behavior is therefore in the area of abusive dynamics, not consensual sexuality.
Important: Christian Ulmen has not yet commented on any of Collien Fernandes’ allegations. The presumption of innocence applies.
