An open conversation with Bart De Pauw that could last an hour, that’s what Play4 presented to TV-watching Flanders. No substantive conditions had been set, Gert Verhulst emphasized at the beginning of the broadcast, but Bart De Pauw wanted to be the only guest so that he had time to tell his story and would not be interrupted too much.
It had been “tough weeks” for De Pauw, he said, now that VRT has broadcast The Trial That Nobody Wanted, in which the victims of the De Pauw case have their say. “When I heard in November that the documentary would be broadcast, everything flared up again,” says De Pauw, who preferred not to see the matter played out in the media.
“It’s a shame that everything has to be stirred up again. After seven years you hope that you can move on with your life. In those seven years I never spoke about the case, about the verdict or the women involved. I had accepted my fate. Three female judges decided my fate after a long investigation,” said De Pauw. He did not fail to emphasize later in the conversation that the judges were three women.
Creating a special bond
The fallen television maker expressed his regret and said he had done so before in the past, in court, in the very clumsy video from 2017, and in a post on Instagram. He dismissed claims that he had no insight into his guilt or that his apologies were insincere as nonsense. “My sincerity is constantly questioned, nothing is questioned from the other side.”
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However, it took him time to gain insight, he acknowledges. “In court I defended myself against 26 charges of criminal intent. I have always defended myself against that evil intent. I never consciously wanted to hurt those women. It took a while before I saw clearly what a number of ladies wanted to tell me.”
As his biggest mistake, De Pauw refers to the “many annoying messages” he had sent to women. “I always wanted a special bond with them. But they weren’t looking forward to that.” However, he emphasized several times that, in his opinion, The Trial That Nobody Wanted only highlights one side of the story. “Not all ladies have received thousands of messages from me. I have had a thing with a number of ladies. We were able to provide that context in court,” said De Pauw, who later said his stomach dropped when he saw one testimony. “What an asshole you are, I thought to myself.”
Yet De Pauw also sees the documentary as a form of profession for the women involved. “The process was difficult, but that documentary really made a difference. I was convicted of six of the 26 charges and did not appeal. But the ladies did, in a sense, appeal, through that documentary.” “A process that no one wants will not happen,” De Pauw also alluded to the title of the documentary. “I didn’t want the process.”
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The pain of his family
In the second part of the interview, Gert Verhulst elaborated on the toll the whole affair had on the private life of Bart De Pauw and his family. “For many people it is remarkable that your wife Ines has always been by your side,” Verhulst noted. “We had many discussions and difficult periods during our marriage, because of my behavior,” De Pauw replied. “We went to therapy, with the family, the children, and separately. My wife is one of the bravest people I know. To stay with me, she had to pay a very heavy price.”
His children have also suffered, he said. “They had to read things about their father that they knew nothing about. About how I cheated on their mother. Someone sent to my daughter: ‘I hope you meet a pervert like your father.’ My children have paid a very high price, but now we are a close family again. That makes it so painful that everything is stirred up again.”
The repercussions for De Pauw were also great on a professional level: he was dismissed from the VRT and his production company Koeken Troef! lost his orders. “I have lost many friends,” said an emotional De Pauw. “I was kicked out of the herd. So many people you’ve worked with turn against you. When you read that letter from six hundred people from the sector… (in which they condemn the postponement of the broadcast of the documentary by the VRT, ed.) But few people call you anymore. Someone told me that they would even visit me if I were in prison.”
“As soon as my name pops up, the doors slam shut,” De Pauw said. “I don’t want to play a victim role, but I lost everything. My craft. I did what I loved to do.” The TV maker is now working on some creative ideas, but he believes that a return to the screen is no longer possible. “I can’t imagine ever saying ‘Good evening, dear viewers’ again.”
Conversation with the women
De Pauw said that he constantly reads that he is “sick” and “needs treatment”. “But I have been in therapy for seven years. You don’t want to be constantly reminded of what you’ve done. (…) I am no longer the man I was seven or twenty years ago. That is liberating. I have had insights that have been very important to me.”
Finally, De Pauw shook hands with the victims. “I would like nothing more than to tell each of them that I am terribly sorry. (…) I hope that the conversation with the women will take place. I will hear whether they are still interested in that,” said De Pauw, who announces that he is “now going back into my shell.” A month ago, Bart De Pauw contacted master Christine Mussche, who defends the interests of De Pauw’s victims, but that call has not led to a conversation with the women so far.