At 52, Adriana Ohanian Sklenarikova, better known as Adriana Karembeu, no longer has taboos, she now feels “free” and naturally chose this adjective as the title of her autobiography released Thursday by Editions Leduc. Tele-Leisure read in preview. She recounts her difficult beginnings in Paris where she was asked to lose weight and where “I starved myself to fit into a size 34”. She also confides in the men in her life, Christian Karembeu and Aram Ohanian who gave her the incredible happiness of becoming, at almost 47 years old, the mother of little Nina, now 5 and a half years old.
Today she is a strong and funny woman who has taken a step back from herself and her experiences. She therefore felt free to recount an event that deeply shook her in the mid-2000s. While she was taking her first steps in cinema and television. “One day, my agent asked me to meet a director for a project,” she says. “I go to his house alone for the meeting, I am naive enough not to be suspicious, because it is the afternoon,” she continues. “I ring his doorbell. The director, who already has several films to his credit, welcomes me with a smile, invites me to come in and sit down.
And then everything changes: “After a brief discussion on the script, he gets up and comes closer to me on the sofa. He places his hand on my knee, then suddenly throws himself on me, kissing me violently. I feel his saliva on my face and my chest. The almost 1.80m Slovak doesn’t give in. “I forcefully push him away, shocked that he dared to attack me. I am 35 years old, and I found the strength necessary to fight off this infamous predator and escape. If I had been twenty, I think I would have been more deeply affected.”
She runs to take refuge at home and remains prostrate for a long time. Don’t tell anyone so you can forget this episode. But “a few days later, while I still remain silent about this attack, we have a romantic dinner at the restaurant (Editor’s note: with Christian Karembeu). And there, like a punch in the stomach, I see this French director cross the threshold, walk towards our table, act absolutely as if nothing had happened,” she explains.
“As if nothing had happened. He dares to greet me in front of my husband, with his lecherous air, when he tried to rape me so recently,” she wrote. “I remain unmoved, even if deep inside, I scream with all my might.”
A few years later, she found the strength to say a few words to her agent who said almost normally: “I should have warned you, he is sometimes borderline, his reputation precedes him”. A speech which echoes the numerous testimonies of actresses mistreated and attacked by French directors.
