A high-profile French television presenter accused by 20 women of sexual assault and harassment has been formally put under investigation for alleged rape. Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, known as PPDA, is alleged to have forced the journalist and author Florence Porcel to perform oral sex on him in 2009. He is being investigated for alleged “rape by a person abusing the authority of their position”. He denies the allegation. A previous investigation into Porcel’s claim was dropped by the public prosecutor in 2021. She responded by bringing a civil action, which an investigating magistrate decided this week was strong enough to warrant charging Poivre d’Arvor. As part of the original investigation, 23 women came forward to speak to police and to accuse the presenter of alleged sexual offences including rape, abuse and harassment between 1985 and 2015. The majority claimed they had been assaulted in his office at the TF1 television station or at his home. In what is seen as one of the largest and most complex #MeToo cases in France, Porcel’s legal action is the only one within the time limit for proceedings. Poivre d’Arvor, 76, a household name in France, has denied all the allegations and announced in April this year that he was taking legal action against 16 women who spoke to police for “slanderous denunciation”. The former primetime presenter insists his relations with the women were consensual and part of a ritual of “seduction” that did not involve violence or constraint. He has described the allegations as “false from beginning to end”. In his 43-page legal complaint for slander, Poivre d’Arvor deplored “a return to puritanism and censorship cleverly dressed up as the supposed protection of women”. He said: “Since the excitement generated by the #MeToo wave, the liberation of women’s voices has unfortunately had its share of excesses and abuses.” Separately, a Spanish journalist and author, Ruth Baza, has filed a criminal complaint in Spain against the French actor Gérard Depardieu, claiming he raped her when she was 23 and went to interview him in Paris in October 1995. In another case, Depardieu, 74, one of France’s best-known and loved actors, with a career including 200 films, was formally put under investigation for alleged rape in France in 2020, and he has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by more than a dozen women. He has denied the allegations, declaring he has “never abused any woman”.