In the VRT programme In 5 years actress Maaike Cafmeyer has looked back on the impact of the Bart De Pauw trial. Cafmeyer was one of the women who filed civil proceedings in the lawsuit surrounding the television maker.
“Are you afraid that it might also have consequences for you professionally? That you might receive fewer offers?”, presenter Wim De Vilder asked her five years ago. The trial still had to take place at that time. “Certainly. I’m not going to be silly about that.”
“I’m very afraid of what’s coming. I’m afraid of public humiliation,” she said. “I can be tough about this, but this is not tough. It is intense, difficult, complex, complicated. This is absolutely the hardest thing I have ever experienced in my life.”
De Pauw was sentenced by the criminal court in November 2021 to a suspended prison sentence of six months for harassment and electronic nuisance.
Less rolling
Now, five years later, the actress confirms that she has indeed overcome a lot through that process. “I have been so terribly sad. Sometimes I say that planché have fretted of misery.”
“You were afraid of being less in demand as an actress. That didn’t happen,” says De Vilder in the 2025 interview. “No. To be honest, that surprises me. I had been well informed in other matters, in America or England for example, and women were sometimes pushed aside there,” she says.
“I was afraid that everything would disappear into the ground. Not just the life I had built. I love what I do so much. I am lucky enough to love my job and be happier for it. If I had lost that, it would have been terrible. I honestly thought it would be different. And there were indications that that might have happened.”
“Of course it was necessary to be afraid. It would have just been crazy not to be afraid. That fear protects you from a lot,” she says. “But I am stronger and happier than I was 5 years ago. And I am truly happy about that.”
‘In 5 years’ can be seen on Wednesday at 9.30 pm on VRT 1 and via VRT MAX.
