Zahia Dehar (21) is chauffeured around Paris in a black limousine. Her friend Karl Lagerfeld, the Chanel designer, calls her “fascinating”.
Just two days ago, the former callgirl turned celebrity and designer was photographed at Donatella Versace’s Paris fashion show, with Lady Gaga. But strive as she may for respectability, Zahia – as she is known to all – is still known as Franck Ribéry’s birthday present.
Ribéry, the Bayern Munich winger (30), and Karim Benzema, the Real Madrid striker (26), have gone on trial for having sex with Zahia when she was an underage prostitute.
They both claim not to have known her age – 16 with Benzema in 2008, 17 with Ribéry in 2009. Zahia swears she lied to both men about her age.
Neither football star was in court yesterday, but were represented by their lawyers. The trial is set to last until Thursday.
Zahia won’t attend either, unless summoned. If that happens, Ribéry’s lawyer says he will demand a closed session to “avoid gratuitous voyeurism” and protect his client’s privacy.
In an interview published by German newspaper AZ Munchen yesterday, Ribéry complained about the "politics" of the Ballon d'Or award, which the international football association Fifa gave to the Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo last week, instead of him.
Zahia too wishes the case would go away.
A Paris Match journalist who accompanied her to her lingerie factory near Lyon last summer asked about the trial, which was postponed since June. "Under her fake eyelashes, tears well up," Match reported. "Tears flow down her face, smudging her pink lipstick and her pearly blusher. When Zahia cries, her make-up artist and hairdresser come running . . . 'I'm afraid it will start all over. I don't want to relive the stress'," she sniffled.
The scandal broke just before the 2010 World Cup, after French police questioned Zahia regarding clients of the Zaman Café, a meeting place for prostitutes and their clients on the Champs-Élysées.
She told them Benzema invited her to his table in a different Paris club in 2008. The footballer’s manager took her in a taxi to the Méridien Hotel, where Benzema joined her. She told him her fee, €1,000. He accepted, then paid her half. Benzema denies having had sex with Zahia.
Admits to sex
Ribéry admits to sex with Zahia, but says he did not know she was a prostitute or that she was under age. Zahia told investigators she was taken to Munich by a certain Kamel Ramdani for Ribéry's birthday in 2009. That same year, Algerian-born Zahia obtained French nationality.
A second prostitute, Sashia, accompanied Zahia and Ramdani to Munich, where Ribéry and his brother-in-law, Malik Belmahi, met them at the airport. Belmahi is also charged in the case. The five dined together, then went to a hotel for group sex. Zahia said Ribéry gave her €700 and €200 to Sashia. They repeated the experience the following night, without pay.
Zahia said she had sex with Ribéry again in Paris at the end of 2009 and that he refused to pay her.
Zahia gave up prostitution to design luxury lingerie in pastel colours with cupcake and pastry motifs – but there isn't much of a market for €500 silk panties. Le Figaro reported that Zahia is supported by a "Pygmalion", the heir to a dynasty who set up a mysterious fund called First Mark International Limited in Hong Kong to finance her business and lavish lifestyle.
Zahia calls herself “Mademoiselle”, which must make Coco Chanel turn in the grave.
“She is ravishing, like a luxury item,” Karl Lagerfeld said in a French television interview in 2012. “There’s a French tradition of courtesans as luxury items . . . For me, she’s a girl who didn’t really have any other choice than to do that profession, who had an exceptional physique and did what thousands of women did before her. I find her fascinating.”
