The reports claiming Hiba Abouk - the Spanish actress and wife of footballer Achraf Hakimi - wanted half of his assets amid divorce but everything was in his mother's name has been slammed as false.
According to The African Report, the story "is not based on reality" and it perfectly illustrates the results of an MIT study published in 2018, which found that fake news spreads faster than real information.
Investigative journalist Rym Bousmid dug into the rumour and how it started before concluding that it had no element of truth.
"It started with a tweet published by the Ivorian journal First Mag. This online media platform is a regular offender when it comes to the dissemination of fake news, and seems to focus more on comedy than journalism," Rym writes for The Africa Report.
French Journalist and sports reporter Gilles Verdez also spoke out against the rumors, stressing that they are "fake news" and it wouldn't be possible for Hakimi to put the property in his mother's name.
In a report from French media Le 10 Sport, Verdez said that the rumors "are not true."
"But it's not true that he put the property in his mother's name, that wouldn't be possible," the reporter said. "Not in Spain, not in Morocco, not in France."
Also, Hakimi's mother has refuted the story (read here) but this has not stopped the initial report from being circulated and debated. Many opined that she refuted it to protect her son.
From a legal standpoint, the news is "not credible" because "hiding one's asset from one's spouse is an act of fraud".
"In the majority of European countries (including Spain, Germany, Italy and France, where the player has lived successively), there are two types of matrimonial regimes: marriage in community of property, which implies that everything acquired during the marriage by one of the spouses is shared in case of divorce; and that of the separation of property, which assumes that the non-division of property is stipulated in the marriage contract," as per The African Report.
"In summary, either the fortune of the player, considered the sixth-best-paid African footballer in Europe in 2022, will be shared following the divorce with the mother of his children, or the latter already knows that she will not benefit. Hiding one's assets from one's spouse is considered an act of fraud."
According to Omar El Adlouni, a professor at French university La Sorbonne, the allegations are impossible from a legal point of view, in addition to being "fake news."
In a LinkedIn post, El Adlouni denounced the rumours, explaining that under current laws regulating marriages in Europe, spouses cannot transfer wealth to escape splitting assets in case of a divorce as that is considered a criminal act punishable by law.
As for what Abouk, who was in a relationship with Hakimi for five years, including three years of marriage, has to say following their breakup, the Spanish actress made it clear she is on the side of her estranged husband's alleged victims.
Hakimi is under investigation in a rape case in Nanterre and has been placed under judicial supervision since March 2023. Hakimi categorically denies the charges. His lawyer, Fanny Colin, even denounced the case as an "attempt at extortion".
It was rumoured that Abouk left the star when she first heard of the charge.
Speaking the day after the announcement of Hakimi's sexual assault case, Abouk - who shares two children with the footballer - said: "Today I feel obliged to make this public statement to express my state of mind and clarify, firsthand, the misinformation that circulates."
Regarding the accusations facing her ex-husband, the actress said she was "on the side of the victims" and "trust the good work of justice".
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