Some stories that unfold in real life would read like the plot of a bad crime novel if you wrote them down. Too obvious, too contrived, almost lazy in their cruelty. For example, this one: a woman spends years trying to identify the person who has allegedly been violating her online, only to eventually conclude that it was her husband all along.

This is how the case of Germany’s once-favourite celebrity couple Collien Fernandes and Christian Ulmen now presents itself to the public. Fernandes, TV presenter, actor and author, has been a familiar face in mainstream entertainment for more than two decades. Ulmen, an actor, producer and former MTV presenter, is long associated with a certain kind of ironic, self-aware masculinity. The two married in 2011, had a daughter, and cultivated the image of a modern, witty supercouple, working together on series and advertisements, in which they playfully talked about their seemingly average marriage for comedic effect. Until that image fractured.

When the couple announced their separation last year, people publicly mourned the loss of the ideal celebrity couple. But the dark backdrop of this breakup was only revealed after a report in Der Spiegel.

Fernandes, in an interview with the newspaper, said she had filed a legal complaint against Ulmen in Spain, where the couple had moved to in 2023. Her allegations were shocking: Fernandes claimed that her husband had subjected her to domestic violence, created fake social media profiles in her name, used them to contact men and distributed sexualised images and videos designed to appear as if they depicted her.

Fernandes has been talking publicly about digital violence and her own experiences with it for years. She even made a TV documentary, which........

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