A German TV presenter has filed a lawsuit against her ex-husband after he generated hundreds of deepfake porn images of her over a period of ten years.
Power couple Collien Fernandes, 44, and Christian Ulmen, 50, had been together since 2011, before separating in 2025 and divorcing in March of this year.
While the reasons behind their split had previously been kept private, Fernandes took to her Instagram on Friday to reveal the truth.
The TV presenter described how she had been alerted to the deepfake content five years ago after she found out about a video in which a woman who looked like her was having sex with a group of men.
'For years, fake profiles were created in my name, someone sent (fake) nude photos and sex videos of me, which seemed private and were meant to give the impression that I had taken the nude photos and filmed myself during sex,' she wrote.
'Even while I was filming a documentary on the subject in 2024, the perpetrator continued until the accounts were suspended by the platforms.'
She described the creation of fake profiles in her name and the sending of fake pornographic pictures and videos generated by AI.
Fernandes added that her voice was hijacked to create fake phone sex conversations.
Fernandes took to her Instagram on Friday to reveal the truth about her ex-husband's actions.
'You virtually raped me,' Fernandes reportedly wrote in a text to her ex.
'But all this time, the perpetrator was very close. His name: Christian Ulmen,' she revealed in her statement.
The 44-year-old, who shares a daughter with her ex, shared that Ulmen confessed to his actions on Christmas Day, 2024, only after she filed a complaint against unknown suspects for creating the imitation accounts.
She said her TV-star husband justified the abuse by claiming he 'owned' her.
'Because he owned me, he could make me available to other men for sex,' she wrote. 'My body was stolen from me for years.'
An email sent by her ex-husband to a law firm, seen by German magazine Der Spiegel, stated that he had 'unfortunately developed a sexual fetish' in the past 10 years, adding he had a 'difficult to control impulse.'
According to the publication, Ulmen sent deepfake porn videos of his wife to his contacts on free online porn websites.
The recipients of the content would then be under the impression that they were having an affair with the famous presenter.
'You virtually raped me,' Fernandes wrote in a text to her ex, according to the magazine.
Fernandes previously suffered physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Ulmen, people close to her have said.
She was allegedly hit by her ex-husband during an argument outside a cafe in Palma de Mallorca, Spain in 2023, witnesses reported.
Fernandes's case has sparked widespread anger in Germany, with a huge demonstration in Berlin on Sunday calling for more action to be taken against perpetrators of violence against women.
Over 250 female politicians and cultural figures published a piece in Der Spiegel on Monday calling for harsher rules in Germany against deepfakes and femicides.
Eike Hosemann, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, said these acts will be criminalised 'very soon' by a new law on digital violence.'
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, he said: 'Criminal law is not up to the task, particularly when it comes to deepfakes, but also other issues.'
German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig also added: 'We want to ensure that perpetrators can no longer feel safe, that they must expect to be identified and effectively prosecuted.'
Fernandes's case has sparked widespread anger in Germany, with a huge demonstration in Berlin on Sunday.
In Germany, 60% of women and girls have faced digital violence, a figure driven by the rise of generative AI.
This mirrors a troubling global trend - 98% of all deepfake videos are pornographic, almost exclusively targeting women without their consent.
A 2025 UN Women report warned that AI tools built on gender biases are making violence against women 'spread further, faster, and in a more complex way.'
These technologies can facilitate advanced impersonation and sextortion, where sophisticated AI bots mimic human conversation to trick women and girls into sharing private data or arranging dangerous offline meetings.
They can also be used for targeted doxing, in which AI can scan posts to find sensitive content, making it easier for attackers to launch coordinated campaigns to leak a victim's personal information.
A preliminary investigation has been opened in Spain, where the couple resided before their separation.
A 40-page brief was reportedly filed with a court in Palma de Mallorca with the department tasked with prosecuting violence against women.
Meanwhile, Ulmen has reportedly hired a lawyer to take legal action against Der Spiegel.