“My hardest interview”, his rare confidences on the death of his father and his commitments

He was one of the heroes of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but Antoine Dupont is very modest. The gold medal rugby player therefore had to do violence to the Papotin meetings. The France 2 program brings together a personality to confront non-professional journalists with autism spectrum disorder from I’m a potheadand the result is still strong.

We remember the passage of Philippe Etchebest, who spoke about the adoption of his son Oscar, or that of Julien Doré and his comments on his role as a father. This Saturday, October 5, 2024, the athlete tried his hand at this perilous exercise, responding as frankly as possible to the unfiltered questions of his interlocutors. And he touched his audience while venting about the recent death of his fatherwithout forgetting to express a strong commitment.

Antoine Dupont: his toughest interview

To start this Papotin meeting, Antoine Dupont passed around the gold medal he won with the rugby sevens team at the Paris Olympics and made people happy. After some cash questions, notably on his possible links with Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, he had fun: “They are indeed your questions”. Then another journalist asked him if he had gained weight: “Do you think I’ve gained weight?”, to which she replied “oui”, causing the champion to laugh.

Antoine Dupont was then questioned about his injury or about violence in rugby, but he also had to give of himself, since he was not only asked to answer questions. The rugby player danced to zouk love, played a touch of rugby and even sang a duet on I will go where you go by Celine Dion. But the highlight of this interview is when he talked about the death of his father.

The athlete’s confidences on the death of his father

When a journalist asks him about his ties with his mother, he confirms that he is very close to her. Then when talking about his father, he specifies that the latter died last year: “He had taken a wrong turn. He had been in a vegetative state for 8 yearsthat is to say he was sick, he was in a center”. He then continued: “He wasn’t very well, it had been 8 years. He died”. Rare confidences from the athlete, who moved the room. Journalist Claire then spoke of “strong men” in rugby, asking him if talking about the things that affect him could make him even stronger. “That’s a very good question, but yes I think I’ve evolved a lot on that, opening myself up to the world and to others”, he replied, before singing along with her. “They don’t spare me here”, he said with a laugh.

Then Antoine Dupont returned on a strong commitment: the fight against homophobia, and more particularly in rugby. He notes an ‘evolution’very slow”, thanks to the speaking out of some. But he deplores that it still remains a taboo subject: “In professional rugby, we only have one player who has come out while I think that statistically there must still be others“. According to him, even if society has evolved a lot, it is still hard to take responsibility today but he feels the rugby world is very open-minded: “We would be ready to accept that without any problem“. He concludes: “We need to keep talking about it“He describes this interview as “the hardest“of his life, but also of”the most beautiful“.

Editor for Aufeminin since 2022, Charlotte is passionate about cinema, French and international, and a fortune reader. Curious about everything, she talks as much about personalities as…