Major trigger warning for the following topics: sexual harrassment, deepfakes, domestic violence, stalking.
Schauspielerin Collien Fernandes kämpft gegen Online-Missbrauch: Sie sucht seit Jahren diejenigen, die Fake-Pornografie von ihr verschicken. Nun hat sie Anzeige gegen ihren Ex-Mann erstattet, den Moderator Christian Ulmen. https://t.co/6ynq957mYu
— DER SPIEGEL (@derspiegel) March 19, 2026
Who: German TV host and actress Collien Fernandes, 44, and German TV producer and actor Christian Ulmen, 50. They were married from 2011–2025 and share a daughter who was born in 2012. They were one of the most popular celebrity couples in Germany and worked together on multiple TV shows and commercials. They spoke in interviews about equality and sharing responsibilities, like Ulmen staying at home when Fernandes had filming commitments, he took care of their daughter when she had earaches, and that he has no respect for men who behave like “so-called alpha males.”. He also once famously said that “I see myself completely as the kind of man feminism has always wanted.”
What happened: For years, Fernandes was the victim of massive online attacks. Anonymous users created fake profiles under her name, arranged phone sex, and sent pornographic material featuring women who looked like her. The profiles not only messaged random men but mostly people she worked with or was close to. She spent years trying to identify the perpetrators, even investigating leads overseas, and spoke about the experience in her own TV documentary.
On Christmas Day 2024, her (now ex-)husband allegedly confessed, saying, “It was me, I did it,” after reading a newspaper article about her suing the anonymous perpetrators. She also shared that while she initially couldn’t believe what she was hearing, he seemed more afraid of going to prison.
She later found out that her ex-husband, over the course of 10 years, ALLEGEDLY:
- contacted hundreds of men, many of whom she worked with, using a fake LinkedIn profile under her name
- spread numerous pornographic deepfake images and videos (one of the videos is titled “jerk-off challenge” and has 270k views), making it appear as though she had created them herself
- later created fake email accounts under her name and continued messaging the men
- had phone sex with them (allegedly using AI to mimic her voice)
- organized real-life hookup meetings with these men (only to cancel them at the last minute)
- sent them a self-written novel in which Fernandes is sexually assaulted and g*ngr*ped by multiple men
The article also briefly mentions an incident in January 2023, during which he allegedly physically attacked her in their shared apartment in Spain and was briefly detained by police.
Legal proceedings have been initiated in Spain (their last shared residence), with accusations including identity theft and relationship-related violence. The investigation is ongoing, and no outcome has been determined yet. Ulmen declined to comment on the matter. He remains innocent until proven guilty.
source: @derspiegel, article translated and paraphrased by me
