Julien Lacroix is a stand-up comedian, a screenwriter, and an actor born in Quebec. Winner of four Olivier, the 28-year-old comedian made himself known through Web capsules in 2015. Particularly popular with young people, Julien Lacroix, who has more than 140,000 subscribers on Instagram, was part of the cast of the Code G TV show in Vrak and the Projet 2000 series on ICI Tou.tv. In 2019, he launched his first solo show, in addition to co-hosting his first Carte Blanche gala at the Just for Laughs Festival. In 2020, he co-hosted a virtual after-ball organized on his initiative for graduates from Quebec who were deprived of their ball due to the pandemic. More importantly, in 2018 he participated in On parle de sexe, a web series broadcast on the Télé-Québec site in partnership with the Tel-jeunes intervention line. In these capsules for 13 to 15-year-olds, topics related to teenage sex are discussed in a humorous way. According to an article published in Le Devoir newspaper, nine women have confided about Julien Lacroix’s sexual assault or sexual misconduct and the importance of speaking out so that these behaviors stop in order to prevent others from falling victim to them. Julien Lacroix considered his 2020 backlash to contain unfounded and defamatory allegations until he finally admitted to it this year in January 2021. 

Julien Lacroix: 10 Things People Should Know! 

Who is Julien Lacroix? What was his career like?

Julien Lacroix started his career as an improviser, in 2013 he won the World improvisation which took place in Belgium. A few years later, in 2017, he participated in the National improvisation organized for the 40th anniversary of the National Improvisation League.

On stage, he began his career returning from Belgium in 2013 where he founded a comedy evening in his hometown. To promote the night, he started making videos on Facebook that quickly went viral, with some reaching up to a million views. He featured guests such as Mariana Mazza, Mike Ward, Adib Alkhalidey, Katherine Levac, Patrick Groulx, Virginie Fortin, Pier-Luc Funk, Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse, Mehdi Bousaidan, Yannick De Martino and many others.

Following these capsules of success, he was selected to participate in the Mike Ward Show4 program, broadcast on Télétoon, as a columnist, where each of his passages was successful on the web. He was then seen on the show ALT (News Léger Tordue) 5, Code G, Le Chalet and # 5règles on VRAK, at Sommets Coors Light on the Sports Network, at the National d’Improvisation on Télé-Québec. as well as several appearances at Please do not send flowers on Radio-Canada.

On the web, we saw him in La Fouille à V (television network), Bête de sexe on Télé-Québec and Le Band et Sébastien on TOU.TV. He can also be seen in Les Prodiges alongside Yannick De Martino on TOU.TV.

On stage he presented his first solo show Voisiquement-moi in 2016. He participated in his first Gala ComediHa! in the summer of 2017 when he won the Discovery prize of the ComediHa! Fest-Quebec. Finally, he was discovered by the general public in the winter of 2017 when he won three trophies for his three nominations at the Gala les Olivier.

In 2017, he co-wrote Les Prodiges with Yannick De Martino, a web series broadcast on Youtube10 and produced by KOZE. 

In March 2018, Julien Lacroix and Adib Alkhalidey announced the production of their film Mon Ami Walid, in which they will also play the main roles.

In 2019, he begins the tour of his first One-Man Show, So far everything is fine.

In July 2020, during the third wave of denunciations which occurred a few years after the MeToo Movement, Julien Lacroix was targeted in an article in the newspaper Le Devoir by nine testimonies of assault and sexual misconduct, including that of his ex-girlfriend.

In response to this article, he published a status on Facebook denying the testimonies, criticizing the way victims denounce and affirming at the same time that “Le Devoir goes too far”, that we want to “destroy [his] career “, that” most of the events for which [him] is accused would have occurred when [he was] a minor “, then that the journalist responsible for the article, Améli Pineda, did not give him the opportunity to respond to questions. testimonies to “give [his] version of the facts”, which is denied by the article in question. 

According to the author Améli Pineda, Julien Lacroix would have asked to obtain the name of the nine women as well as the content of the testimonies in order to decide whether or not to grant an interview to the journalist. The latter sent him a descriptive list of the alleged events, which he qualified as “unfounded and defamatory”. Following an open letter from his ex denouncing several of his specific misconduct, his alcoholism and his inadequate way of behaving, Lacroix presents, in a second publication, apologies to those who could have been hurt by his first publication, while emphasizing his personal problems and without apologizing directly to the alleged victims. 

However, he announces that he intends to face his problems that he has been pushing back for a long time.

Why is Julien Lacroix infamous?

In July 2020 nine women came out with the public statement in the newspaper Le Devoir that they had been victims of assault or sexual misconduct by comedian and actor Julien Lacroix.

Ex-girlfriend Geneviève Morin says: “He sexually assaulted me”

In the newspaper Le Devoir, Geneviève Morin said that was in a relationship with Julien Lacroix for almost six years, from 2013 to 2019.  She got to know the comedian in 2012, when they were both doing college improvisation. On October 4, 2019, nearly eight months after their breakup, Geneviève Morin received a call from the comedian: he was bored and would like to see her again. She accepts that they meet in the apartment they shared for three years.

“He sexually assaulted me. I told him “no, stop” and, despite that, he continued. I was crying, but he did what he had to do and when he was done he put his pants back on and said “stop crying, you don’t know how much I love you” and he is gone, ”she testifies, sobbing.

Having planned to go on a trip a few days later, Geneviève Morin remains silent, especially because she is ashamed of what happened to her. When she returned, about three weeks later, she said she wrote to him to confront him. Julien Lacroix called her in the following minutes.

“He told me he was apologizing, he was angry with himself, that he was not well, that he did not want to hurt me. I told her that I thought it was serious and that I didn’t know what to do, ”she recalls.

She then confides her assault with two friends, including comedian Rosalie Vaillancourt, who often shared the stage with Julien Lacroix. Geneviève Morin told her about the assault in early 2020.

After the separation, Geneviève Morin realizes that her relationship with Julien Lacroix was unhealthy, and says she suffered psychological and physical abuse. 

“He was often drunk. He called me a bitch, a bitch and when I confronted him the next day telling him that he couldn’t talk to me like that, he would burst into tears and apologize saying he was not doing well, that he loved me, ”says the young woman.

Her neighbor, Amélie Chartrand, corroborates her statements. “What separated me from their bickering was just a wall. I heard everything. I actually went knocking to make sure Geneviève was correct, ”she said.

In January 2019, Julien Lacroix sent his ex-girlfriend a long email, which the newspaper Le Devoir was able to consult. He wished her a happy new year, apologized for not telling her he was in a relationship with a new woman, and wrote that he looks forward to working with her again. In fact, a few weeks later, he offered to recommend her as a script editor to work on the writing of the second season of the Project 2000 series, which she accepted.

One night in May, Julien Lacroix once again showed up at Geneviève Morins after phoning him, although she told him that she did not want to see him. Panicked, she calls 911.

“It rang nonstop for about 5 minutes. The police arrived when he had already left, “said the woman who has been seeing a psychologist for several months. Geneviève Morin did not file a sexual assault complaint with the police, but wanted to for the first time to consider doing so.

Three other women told Le Devoir that they had non-consenting sex:

In the newspaper Le Devoir, they had non-consenting sex with the comedian in 2010 when they were 15 and 16, and Julien Lacroix, almost 18. All three knew him at Durocher College in Saint-Lambert, and some asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals from the comedian.

Then 26-year-old Lauriane Palardy says she only spoke about the assault two years ago to her partner, with whom Le Devoir the newspaper was also able to speak. 

“I had an active sex life at the time and I experienced it as something really unpleasant, bordering on violent, but not as an assault because I did not understand much about consent at that time- there, ”she testifies.

She remembers that Julien Lacroix suggested that she sleep at home after a party where she had drunk a lot. “He insisted that I lay in his bed and at one point I was like ‘fuck off’, I just want to sleep,” she says.

However, Julien Lacroix would have started to kiss and touch her. “Unfortunately, it’s not as crystal clear as I would like it to be. I just remember I didn’t want to give him a blowjob and he insisted to the point where he held my head, “she said.

Since she knew Julien Lacroix as a couple, she remained silent for a long time and even continued to be around him. That same summer, Julien Lacroix would have phoned her to come and see her at her place.

“I told him no and he knocked on my bedroom window insistently for over half an hour. My parents weren’t there and I remember at one point I thought about calling the police, ”she said.

Ten years later, she wanted the comedian to take responsibility and use her notoriety to initiate social reflection. “My dream is for him to do a mea culpa and take responsibility. Let him recognize that he contributed to the culture of rape, she said. I want people to shine a light on the culture of silence, in which I too participated at the time by not reporting what had happened to me. A culture of silence catalyzed by a lack of education, resources and social support. “

Another woman met with Le Devoir who alleges similar behavior on the part of Julien Lacroix still in the summer of 2010. “It was spring break, we went out to a bar in Montreal and, at the end of the evening, Julien told me he had no more money to take the taxi and asked me if he could sleep at my place, ”she says.

Reluctant, the young woman, then a teenager, finally agreed on the condition that he sleeps on the couch and takes the first metro to Longueuil, where he then lived.

“I put blankets on the couch for him at my mother’s and I went to my bedroom to sleep. A few minutes later, Julien slipped into my bed and started kissing me. I told him ‘no, we can’t do that’, ”she recalls. She didn’t want to have sex with him.

Her refusal does not slow down Julien Lacroix. “He said to me ‘we have already started, the damage is done, nobody is going to know’, then he was really insistent. At one point, I gave in, I was staring and waiting for it to end. When he was done, some money appeared in his wallet and he left for a cab. “

A year later, she confided in her boyfriend, with whom she is still in a relationship with today, and with whom Le Devoir was able to speak. It’s a real nightmare that this revelation will cause when Julien Lacroix learns that she has spoken about it. “He started a smear campaign against me. He decided to go off the rumors by saying that I was a bitch, that I slept with a lot of guys; a lot of people intimidated me and I was left out. It was very difficult, I even had to see a psychologist, ”says the one who had sleeplessness and many panic attacks around the time.

It will take her several years to realize that she has been assaulted. “It was in a course at the university where the culture of rape was discussed that, for the first time, I was able to put into words what had happened to me,” she says.

The young woman, who studied law, never considered filing a complaint. “I will never go to court with my story, because I was so embarrassed and guilty that I could not give a concrete testimony,” she said. In 2015, she again consulted a psychologist to make peace with this event.

“What I’m looking for is that it doesn’t happen anymore. Over the years, I have realized that I have a duty to other women to report, so that there are no other victims. I would also like Julien to take responsibility and recognize that he did something wrong, ”she said.

For another woman: “what happened with Julien was the beginning of the loss of power over her body.”

One summer evening in 2010, several guests reportedly ended up sleeping at Julien Lacroix’s after a party organized in his family home in Vieux-Longueuil.

“I remember I slept in a single bed and a guy was sleeping on the floor next door,” said the now 26-year-old woman. It was starting to get clear when Julien came in and laid down next to me. We had never had any reconciliations and he started kissing me, touching my breasts, then he went down to my buttocks and ran his fingers through my private parts. I remember telling him no and asking him what he was doing there, but he continued and penetrated me with his fingers. “

According to her, Julien Lacroix would then have started to put pressure on her to make her feel bad. “He said to me ‘well there, you are very boring, the others do it’, she continued. I was frozen. “She refuses to go any further, which she says angered Julien Lacroix, who left the room stressing. 

“I remember I was a little angry inside me because I didn’t like it. Looks like he destroyed my connection to sex because back then I had never had sex before. He made me feel as if I was the problem, whereas when someone says no to you and you continue, well it’s an assault ”, says the one who confided the event to one. of her best friends. She confirmed to Le Devoir that she had been informed.

Non-consensual make out sessions: 

Five other women with whom Le Devoir spoke in 2020 expose the inappropriate behavior of Julien Lacroix, and say that they were kissed by surprise, in a non-consensual manner, between 2015 and 2019, when they met the comedian by chance in the street or in a bar. The newspaper Le Devoir corroborated their testimonies with people who witnessed the events or to whom they confided.

Gabrielle Prince-Guérard is one of them. 

In 2015, she met Julien Lacroix in high school, in a bar in the Plateau-Mont-Royal. They talk for a good part of the evening. 

Even though she made it clear to him that she didn’t want to, Julien Lacroix kisses her without warning, she says. “Instantly I pushed him away and told him he was a jerk. “

“At the moment, he really has a big platform and he’s become a bit of a spokesperson for a lot of stuff for young people, he made capsules on sex education and I tell myself that, if he did that to me when he wasn’t yet known and didn’t have that much power, today with all his fame, what can he do to other women? Gabrielle Prince-Guérard said. 

In December 2017, Julien Lacroix tried to kiss Clémence Tessier at another bar in the Plateau-Mont-Royal. She says Julien Lacroix approached her while she was chatting with his friend at a table. “He was drunk, he said, ‘Hey, are you a prostitute?’ He was really rude and we made him understand that it wasn’t really funny, ”she said.

Later that evening, she meets the comedian who, without warning, tries to kiss her on the lips. “It really offended me. We didn’t know each other. Today, when I see his name, I don’t want to encourage him, I find his behavior inappropriate, “she explains.

Rosalie Vaillancourt, his comedian friend was also assaulted:

Comedian Rosalie Vaillancourt met Julien Lacroix in 2014 as part of Mardis du rire, the humor evenings he organized in Longueuil. They collaborate in the years that follow, before taking different paths.

In  January 2020 Geneviève Morin told her about the assault she allegedly suffered. Rosalie Vaillancourt then decides to no longer partner with Julien Lacroix.

“Looking back, I realize that he behaved in degrading behavior and that he often did so under the guise of humor,” says Rosalie Vaillancourt. “It has happened before that he lifts my dress in front of people and kisses me forcibly. I feel like I encouraged his behavior, because at the time, although I was uncomfortable, I didn’t tell him. “

In early 2021, Julien Lacroix broke his silence:

For her part, ex-girlfriend of 6 years Geneviève Morin hopes that Julien Lacroix will become aware of the seriousness of his behavior. “I think he needs to do some soul searching. He has been protected for too long, because the world of humor is a boy’s club, they are friends who do not want to denounce each other. I have protected him myself for too long; so I tell myself that if someone who claims to love me could do this to me, how can they deal with others?

Luckily, her hopes came true when Julien Lacroix was forced to hear the music. Last July, Julien Lacroix lost all his professional contracts and had to cancel his So far so good tour. After six months of silence, the comedian spoke on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

So it came as a surprise when almost six months after being denounced by nine women who accused him of sexual misconduct, comedian Julien Lacroix broke the silence on social media Tuesday, confessing his alcoholism and apologizing to those he has injured. His ex-wife, Geneviève Morin, as well as comedian Rosalie Vaillancourt, reacted to his apology.

“I am breaking the silence, after a lot of shame, regret and sadness,” he wrote on his Facebook page which has more than 193,000 subscribers. But is Julien Lacroix subtly preparing his return to professional life? He assures us not.

“This speech, I’m not doing it with the aim of announcing a comeback,” he said. I do this to apologize to the people I have deeply hurt. I also do it out of respect for the people who have followed me for years, but above all for my loved ones, my lover and my little brothers ”.

Julien Lacroix then said he supported the wave of denunciations that took place in 2020 “despite the major impacts it had on my life,” he says. I am aware that this is how revolutions are made and necessary changes come about. It is abnormal that in 2021, so many men continue to exhibit toxic behaviors. I never want to be in that category again. “

He is currently involved in a long therapeutic process:

He reiterated that he now works every day to “humbly become a better person.”

“I have started a long therapeutic process that will last my entire life. I’ve also joined groups of young men who want to get out and talk without being judged, ”he adds.

The comedian also confessed to his alcoholism. “(J)” made me dizzy with alcohol, drugs and later work. […] I do not want in any case to hide behind this disease. I am an alcoholic and I am recovering, one day at a time. “

His victims don’t believe him, call it image control:

On July 27, the newspaper Le Devoir revealed the viral testimonies of nine women who accused the comedian of sexual misconduct, including non-consenting relationships.

Among them, Geneviève Morin, who was his girlfriend for six years, said he sexually assaulted her eight months after their split.

The latter reacted to her first public outing, at the end of the afternoon on Instagram, citing the poem The Nectar of Pain, by author and activist Najwa Zebian, which begins with “It’s our story that haunts, I don’t want you in my life anymore. “

“I’m tired of crying,” Geneviève Morin wrote under the post.

Later that evening, comedian Rosalie Vaillancourt, who supported the victims last July, also reacted strongly with a long Facebook post.

She said his apology was rushed, and that contrary to what he said, rumors were circulating that he would prepare for his return to work with a production company.

“I am in good faith,” she said. (…) I am for redemption. But right now, it seems to me to be a formatted message. A message written by image professionals. “

So was this all a PR stunt or is Julien Lacroix capable of change?