behind the scenes of the revelation of their affair unveiled

the January 10, 2014, a certain date engraved forever in the memory of François Hollande. The former tenant of the Élysée, then in a relationship with journalist Valérie Trierweileris One of the magazineCloser. Nothing really surprising so far, except that in this somewhat vague shot, the politician was immortalized on a scooter at the exit of an apartment located at number 20 Cirque Street (Paris) where there was a well-known figure of the seventh art, Juliet Gayet, “ the woman the president loves in secret”, as the weekly people headlined it at the time. Then begins what many have called Gayet Gate. A story that made headlines for weeks and that originated from the investigation of a man: Sébastien Valiela.

Behind this name which perhaps means nothing to you hides a paparazzi who had already unveiled one of the best kept secrets of power: a photo of Mazarine Pingeot, the hidden daughter of François Mitterrand, captured by his lens thirty years before the Gayet Gate. In his work The Paparazzi of the Republicpublished on March 3, 2022 byFirst editionsjournalist Renaud Revel handed the microphone to the image hunter to learn more behind the scenes of the revelation of the liaison between François Hollande and Julie Gayet. “It’s early that day. 7:30 a.m. I open a ventilator, I get my equipment again. And just as I’m about to set sail, I see a guy in a helmet coming out of the building across the street.”, he indicated, as transcribed by our colleagues from Galawho have obtained extracts from the book. And to continue:And at his side, a man whose face, gait and appearance do not deceive: a bodyguard from Holland, one of those who take turns at the bottom of this building depending on the day and whose faces I know . Bim, bim, bim, I triggered my device. A hundred photos in total.”

Sébastien Valiela on the Holland/Gayet link: “I had found the nest”

To be able to obtain this famous series of photos, Sébastien Valiela did not come across the former head of state by chance one fine morning, at the bend of a street. The paparazzi performed long-term work who led him to this Parisian address, then carried out door to door from neighbors who confirmed to him that they had seen François Hollande on several occasions leaving the building. “I had found the nest. But I couldn’t figure out how Hollande could come and see her without being spotted. It seemed incomprehensible to me”, he clarified.

In the columns ofMariannein 2020, Sébastien Valiela explained that he had set up a fine stratagem : he placed in front of the building a discreet box taking photos and videos at the detection of the slightest movement. At the end of December 2013, the scheme turned out to be successful : “It’s hard to believe, but back from the holidays, at the beginning of January, the morning I come to inspect my device near the window, Holland, just opposite, comes out with his helmet on his head. […] That morning, I couldn’t take a picture, but I understood the ride.”