Eddy Guyot, Koh-Lanta candidate, was indicted for sexual assault on Candide Renard, another candidate. The events took place in 2018 on the island of Fiji. Filming had been definitively interrupted.
Filming for season 19 of Koh-Lanta, in May 2018, had to end early. One of the participants, Candide Renard, the daughter of Hervé Renard, the current coach of the French women’s football team, accused another candidate of sexual assault.
The complaint of this 21-year-old woman had triggered the opening of an investigation by the public prosecutor’s office in Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), the defendant’s department of residence.
A sexual assault in the middle of the night
According to information from Parisian, Eddy Guyot was finally indicted for sexual assault on November 16, 2022. On March 14, the investigating chamber of the Nancy Court of Appeal rejected the request for the annulment of the measure. Eddy Guyot has always pleaded his innocence.
According to Candide Renard, cited by the Parisian, the events allegedly took place on the evening of the fourth day of filming. According to the young woman’s accounts, which never varied, Eddy Guyot tried to kiss her before putting his hand under her clothes.
Production is immediately alerted via emergency walkie-talkies available to candidates in case of emergency. The matter is immediately taken seriously and the two protagonists are distanced.
TF1 and the show’s producing company, Adventure Line Productions (ALP), decided to cancel filming of the show, which will therefore never be broadcast on television.
“Koh-Lanta is a family adventure game. I felt, in consultation with the teams on site, that the conditions for producing this new edition were no longer sufficiently calm”explains Alexia Laroche-Joubert, director of ALP, in her press release.
Upon his return on May 13, 2018, Candide Renard filed a complaint. Eddy Guyot was taken into custody when he got off the plane. He was initially left free, released after 4 hours of hearing. But over the course of the investigation which dragged on, in November 2022, it was considered that there was sufficient serious and consistent evidence against this man, leading to his indictment.
He refutes the facts
Eddy Guyot refutes the facts and maintains that his accuser acted out of self-interest within the framework of the show.“In my opinion, she must have told herself that I was just going to be taken out of the game and that she was going to save her place. I think she did that as a strategy. She knew that her place was in danger next tip”he maintains in a press release, cited by The Parisian.
In 2018, he explained: “Every night, I slept between a man and the wall of the cabin. Candide was further away. “When the cameramen came back in the night to film us, I woke up and Candide was half on Me. It was filmed and it completely exonerates me.”.