{"id":1412,"date":"2026-04-01T10:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/1412\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T10:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:21:09","slug":"how-ai-porn-allegations-surrounding-tv-star-rocked-germany-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/1412\/","title":{"rendered":"How AI porn allegations surrounding TV star rocked Germany \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germans love low-wattage showbiz couples and, for the last decade, the couple that had best fit that bill was Christian Ulmen and Collien Fernandes. They were B-list red carpet reliables whose talk shows, comedy series and even commercials saw him as the lovable loser archetype and her as the woman who loves him anyway.<\/p>\n

Now a real-life drama around the since-divorced couple has shattered that illusion, and triggered countrywide marches, parliamentary speeches and emotional debate over digital violence against women.<\/p>\n

It kicked off when Fernandes told Der Spiegel magazine how a years-long hunt for the man who was impersonating her online – on dating apps and porn sites \u2013 had ended at her own front door.<\/p>\n

Her former husband, of more than a decade, Christian Ulmen, had, she said, confessed to using her pictures, and even sending sexually explicit videos to men online to live out his sexual fantasies of seeing his own wife humiliated and violated by strange men.<\/p>\n

The person impersonating her online, she said, had communicated \u201dwith men with a AI-generated voice of me, at some point it tipped over into telephone sex\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ActressActress Collien Fernandes has accused her former husband, actor Christian Ulmen, of sharing deepfake sexual videos of her online. Photograph: Morris MacMatzen\/Getty <\/p>\n

Finally, she said, the fake Collien Fernandes had sent men videos \u201cin which I was raped, in which I clearly say I don\u2019t want this, that I am in pain and I am afraid\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ulmen, through his lawyer, has denied some but not all of the allegations. In particular, he disputes allegations of creating deep-fake videos, where a face of one person is digitally appended to another person\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0German Protestant churches riddled with sexual abuse and cover-ups, report findsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

His lawyers have vowed to take legal action against Fernandes and Der Spiegel magazine, accusing both of spreading \u201cfalse facts\u201d based on hearsay and one-sided claims.<\/p>\n

Undeterred, Fernandes has become the figurehead of a campaign in Germany<\/a> to push back against the largely unregulated world of digital violence against women.<\/p>\n

At least 10,000 people joined a march at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, with many holding signs reading \u201cshame has to change sides\u201d, a phrase coined by French woman Gis\u00e8le Pelicot<\/a> who, for years, was drugged and raped by her husband and other men.<\/p>\n

One protester\u2019s placard read, \u201cI can\u2019t believe that we still have to protest against this s**t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AtAt a Brandenburg Gate rally in Berlin, a participant holds a placard that reads ‘I’m slowly starting to feel like getting revenge!’ Photograph: EPA \"ParticipantsParticipants in a rally against digital violence demonstrate with placards at Frankfurt’s central Roemer Square. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev\/AFP\/Getty <\/p>\n

At a demonstration in her home town of Hamburg, Fernandes appeared onstage to speak about the violent pushback against her allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m standing here with a bullet-proof vest, police protection and security because I am getting death threats,\u201d she told the crowd. \u201cGiven that, you can\u2019t be surprised that so many women simply don\u2019t have the courage to go out and say that this or that was done to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In regular Instagram posts on her case, Fernandes says she is fighting an exhausting, multi-pronged battle: against doubts sown by her ex-husband\u2019s legal team, litanies of detailed questions from media outlets, and a German legal system she says had previously blocked the investigation.<\/p>\n

The latter prompted Fernandes to file charges last December in Majorca, where she and Ulmen once lived. <\/p>\n

\"AA protester holds a sign reading ‘T\u00e4ter sch\u00fctzen T\u00e4ter’ (‘Perpetrators protect perpetrators’) at a demonstration in support of actress Collien Fernandes, protesting violence against women, in Berlin, Germany. Photograph: Maryam Majd\/Getty <\/p>\n

German authorities say they dropped the case because Fernandes\u2019s lawyers failed to provide requested documents. Either way, the case appears to be heading back to Germany after a Spanish court in Palma ruled that it did not bear responsibility. <\/p>\n

The shock of the case is so great that federal justice minister Stefanie Hubig agreed to appear on a top-rated television talk show on Sunday along with Fernandes. <\/p>\n

Hubig insisted she would not talk about any specific cases but that, as a result of Fernandes\u2019s ordeal, would tighten up still further a law already being drafted on digital violence. <\/p>\n

This will criminalise the distribution of all deep fake videos, with additional punishment for production of those with pornographic content. \u201cIt is not about limiting freedom of expression online,\u201d said Hubig, \u201cbut punishing what is really dishonourable and humiliating.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Hazel Behan and Gis\u00e8le Pelicot are not victims, but survivors setting the world on fire with their truthOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In the days since that appearance, however, the tone of the debate has begun to shift. Ulmen\u2019s chief defence lawyer Christian Schertz criticised the talk show for declining his offer to appear. <\/p>\n

After the broadcast, he called it \u201ca television court in session with the highest judicial representative in the land and the complainant\u201d.<\/p>\n

High-profile legal experts agreed, with media lawyer Joachim Steinh\u00f6fel arguing on Twitter\/X: \u201cWhile an investigation is ongoing, the justice minister \u2013 protector of the presumption of innocence \u2013 appears with the complainant in a talk show. Who needs a [court] ruling?\u201d<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s groups have welcomed how the case has highlighted the wider issue of male violence against women and girls in Germany \u2013 calculated at one case a minute \u2013 and even femicide, where one woman a day is estimated to be killed by a man in Germany.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople gather to protest against online assaults against women in Hamburg, Germany, on March 26th last. Photograph: Morris MacMatzen\/Getty <\/p>\n

After breaking the story, Der Spiegel argued that \u201cmen are the problem. Yes, all of them.\u201d An Instagram \u201cdetoxmasculinity\u201d profile has attracted 12,000 likes for its log of the reaction \u2013 or lack thereof \u2013 to the Fernandes claims by actors who have worked with Christian Ulmen.<\/p>\n

Pushing back, the S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung daily has warned against releasing long-pent-up fury blaming all men for all male violence against women. That approach could backfire: \u201cExcessive fury always triggers a violent reaction. That that risks losing people you\u2019ll need as allies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germans love low-wattage showbiz couples and, for the last decade, the couple that had best fit that bill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,1315],"class_list":["post-1412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-germany","tag-gisele-pelicot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}