“I was honest and sincere about my experience. It was a relationship that was very difficult to live through, that I tried to improve, and in the end, I had to leave.” Gabriella Papadakis openly discusses her difficult partnership with Guillaume Cizeron
Gabriella Papadakis, in her new book, openly discusses her difficult partnership with Guillaume Cizeron.
original source: franceinfo.fe dd. 15th January 2026
Gabriella Papadakis, in her new book, openly discusses her difficult partnership with Guillaume Cizeron and the issue of male dominance in figure skating, while Cizeron responds by denouncing her statements as defamatory and taking legal action. Here’s a translation of her comments posted in Franceinfo.
“I was honest and sincere about my experience,” Gabriella Papadakis said on Thursday, January 15, on France Inter, following her accusations against her former partner Guillaume Cizeron. The skater published her book Pour ne pas disparaître (Robert-Laffont) on Thursday, in which she recounts her life, career, the sexual assaults she suffered, her relationship of “control” with her former partner, and denounces the “male domination that exists and persists” in the world of skating.
After years of suffering, “it’s a culmination for me to be here and to be able to talk about it,” Papadakis confided. “It was important for me to tell my story and to regain some control over who I am.”
In her book, the Olympic champion describes how men, and thus Guillaume Cizeron, according to her, take power in skating duos. “I felt that I wasn’t necessarily in control of my career, in control of my body, because of all these codes that are accepted by everyone, that are normalized, where men are somewhat the leaders and women are led, and where the woman’s body becomes an object of performance,” she explains. With Guillaume Cizeron, “it was a relationship that was very difficult to live through, that I tried to improve, and in the end, I had to leave.”
In response, Guillaume Cizeron says he is hurt: “It affects me,” he told Radio France’s sports department, three weeks before the Milan Olympics. He denounces “disparaging and defamatory remarks.” “Despite the respect and compassion I have and have had for Gabriella, I cannot tolerate this kind of statement about me,” he said. In a statement on Tuesday, he announced he had “entrusted the matter to [his] lawyers” to “formally demand that all parties involved immediately cease the dissemination of defamatory statements against [him].”
“I understand him. And at the same time, I wanted to tell my story in a book; this relationship is part of my story. I was honest and sincere about my experience, about my perspective. If he has a different perspective, that’s his right, of course,” Gabriella Papadakis replied.
Related topics: Gabriella Papadakis, Guillaume Cizeron
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