The Washington Post Is Not Reporting That President Obama and Beyoncé Are Having an Affair

Mon dieu. Capitalizing on the media frenzy in both Washington and Paris over French President François Hollande’s coming stag to tomorrow night’s state dinner at the White House, Pascal Rostain, a French papparazzo with a reputation for stretching the truth says that the Washington Post is about to drop a major bombshell that President Obama is having an affair with his good friend Beyoncé.

On Monday, Rostain told a French radio station that the Post will run a story tomorrow that, if it were true, will consume the world’s attention. “You know, at this time, the United States, there is something big that is happening,” Rostain said. “Besides, it’ll go out tomorrow in the Washington Post—we can not say that it is the gutter press—an alleged affair between President Barack Obama and Beyoncé. I can assure you that the world will talk about it.”

“This is absolutely untrue,” Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti tells Washingtonian, adding that she has “no idea” how Rostain came up with his story.

So far, though, the ranks of those taking Rostain’s allegations seriously seem to be confined to the French gutter, with Gala, a tabloid magazine, also running his “scoop.” The normally reserved French daily Le Figaro, whose “cultural reporter” also reported Rostain’s comments, admitted that Rostain is not a credible narrator, calling him a “filou,” or swindler.  

Benjamin Freed

Staff Writer

Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.