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Germany's former first lady fights escort rumors
Source: Agencies |
September 12, 2012, Wednesday
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Print Edition
GERMANY'S former first lady Bettina Wulff has used a new autobiography to reject allegations that she once worked as an escort and announced legal measures to try to silence the rumors, which have spread over the Internet.
Wulff, 38, was Germany's youngest first lady when her husband Christian became president in 2010.
She was initially celebrated in the German media as a glamorous and independent-minded woman, with endless column inches devoted to the tattoo on her arm and her fashion sense, seemingly giving Germany its answer to Michelle Obama and French first lady Carla Bruni.
But rumors about her past began to appear online just as her husband was becoming embroiled in a financial favours scandal that forced him out of the post in February.
Photographs of "Lady Viktoria," a blonde wearing a black blindfold, were avidly compared with pictures of Wulff on the Internet. No allegations were reported in mainstream media, but Wulff became the subject of jokes.
In the book, due out this week, the mother-of-two says the allegations have hurt her deeply. "I have never worked as an escort," she writes.
In a chapter of her book entitled "The Rumors," Wulff writes: "Apparently my pseudonym was Lady Viktoria and my place of work was an establishment called 'Chateau Osnabrueck'."
Wulff has also taken legal steps, including bringing a complaint against the Internet search engine Google.
Entering Bettina Wulff's name in the German language version of the site automatically generates the words "escort" and "prostitute" as suggested search terms. Wulff described her fear that her son could see this. "If he puts my name in and those are the first expressions he sees ... then I find that so horrid and shameful. I can't put the feeling into words."
Google has said it does not select these words itself.
Wulff's lawyer said some publishing outlets agreed to pay her damages for reporting the allegation, but did not name the parties or say how much they had paid.
Wulff, 38, was Germany's youngest first lady when her husband Christian became president in 2010.
She was initially celebrated in the German media as a glamorous and independent-minded woman, with endless column inches devoted to the tattoo on her arm and her fashion sense, seemingly giving Germany its answer to Michelle Obama and French first lady Carla Bruni.
But rumors about her past began to appear online just as her husband was becoming embroiled in a financial favours scandal that forced him out of the post in February.
Photographs of "Lady Viktoria," a blonde wearing a black blindfold, were avidly compared with pictures of Wulff on the Internet. No allegations were reported in mainstream media, but Wulff became the subject of jokes.
In the book, due out this week, the mother-of-two says the allegations have hurt her deeply. "I have never worked as an escort," she writes.
In a chapter of her book entitled "The Rumors," Wulff writes: "Apparently my pseudonym was Lady Viktoria and my place of work was an establishment called 'Chateau Osnabrueck'."
Wulff has also taken legal steps, including bringing a complaint against the Internet search engine Google.
Entering Bettina Wulff's name in the German language version of the site automatically generates the words "escort" and "prostitute" as suggested search terms. Wulff described her fear that her son could see this. "If he puts my name in and those are the first expressions he sees ... then I find that so horrid and shameful. I can't put the feeling into words."
Google has said it does not select these words itself.
Wulff's lawyer said some publishing outlets agreed to pay her damages for reporting the allegation, but did not name the parties or say how much they had paid.
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