When it comes to private life, Amélie Mauresmo likes to cultivate discretion. No wonder then that his trial against his wife, Marie-Bénédicte Hurel, whom she accuses of harassment, took place in the strictest privacy at the Bayonne courthouse this Tuesday, January 23 at the request of his lawyer Me Laurie Delpont.
The reason ? “These are facts which relate to the privacy of a media personality which do not have to be displayed in public,” explains Bayonne public prosecutor Jérôme Bourrier. Result: a closed hearing and few explanations on this legal matter. We take stock.
What does Amélie Mauresmo blame her wife for?
The former world number 1 accuses his wife of harassment since filing for divorce last year. According to South West, Mauresmo would have liked to break up with his wife in February 2023. It is from there that the couple’s life would have changed. She then explains “living hell”. Humiliation, blackmail, insults punctuate his daily life, including by SMS.
The defendant allegedly made denigrating and insulting remarks towards her. Still according to the ex-champion’s defense, the director of the Roland-Garros tournament, who lives in Anglet in the Basque country, even went on several occasions to take refuge with her new partner, presented as a surfer from Biarritz. A total incapacity for work (ITT) of ten days was also prescribed to him in this regard. What characterizes moral harassment.
The 44-year-old former player then filed a complaint on June 27 at the Biarritz police station. Contacted, Amélie Mauresmo did not respond to our requests. For her part, his wife was then interviewed under police custody three months after the complaint was filed.
What is the defense’s version?
At the trial this Tuesday, Marie-Bénédicte Hurel’s lawyers completely contested the facts. “As they lived under the same roof, the text messages do not constitute harassment at all. It’s a discussion, certainly lively,” said Mr. Thierry Sagardoytho at the end of the hearing.
The lawyer in charge of the case, associated with Me Marie-Thérèse Hounieu, also highlighted the absence of witnesses regarding the insults denounced by Amélie Mauresmo who became a civil party during the trial, with her new partner.
Three days later, contacted by Le Parisien, Me Thierry Sagardoytho “completely maintains” his comments, while not wishing to “reveal more” on this subject. He notably described the complaint as “artificial” for the sole purpose of divorce. A version which has so far not convinced the public prosecutor Jean-Claude Belot, who requested ten months suspended prison sentence against Marie-Bénédicte Hurel.
What do we know about the relationship between the two women?
Since her coming out in January 1999, Amélie Mauresmo has always remained vague about her private life and her loves. The ex-tenniswoman would have moved in, still according to South West, in April 2014 with Marie-Bénédicte Hurel, a woman of Ile-de-France origin who is 16 years older. This one, already divorced from a first union in Japan from which two children were born, was for many years a French teacher.
The couple got married, seven years later, in the summer of 2021. During this time, Amélie Mauresmo gave birth to her two children Aaron born in 2015 and a daughter Ayla born in 2017. A family life in four, or even six if we include their two dogs, Golden Retriever Bengal and Muxu. “Muxu”, (“kiss” in Basque), is also the name of a company in the real estate field that the two women created together in April 2019.
This little world lived their idyll in Anglet (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), in a house with a swimming pool, barely ten minutes on foot from La Madrague, a beach in the town. This little dream lived out of sight has come to an end. The Bayonne court will have to determine on February 13 whether or not Amélie Mauresmo was the victim of harassment by her wife.
