Controversial 'women over 50' author defends comments

The director and author who sparked controversy with his comments about women aged 50 or over has sought to defend his comments as a personal problem - but has refused to apologise.

Yann Moix - himself aged 50 - provoked outrage on social media after telling Marie Claire magazine in January: “I am telling you the truth. Aged 50 [myself], I am incapable of loving women aged 50. I think that’s too old. When I am 60 years old, I will be able to; 50 will then appear young to me.”

In an interview on France 2 topical show On n'est pas Couché, he insisted that his relationship with women is personal and related to his own inability to accept the fact he, too, is ageing.

"It is a personal problem: not being able to accept your own age. But I accept very well the age of others. I would never say that a 50-year-old woman is not desirable, not beautiful, that would be an aberration.

He said of his own attitude: "It is not something that is enviable. It's something rather sad, after all, because I realise that being a kind of retarded teenager, I don't have access to a part of life that makes it rich, which is to leave this obsession with the ageing of the body, to accept all possible forms of life."

But he insisted the controversy his comments caused had been blown out of proportion. "I won't apologise because I didn't want to hurt anyone. I cannot be responsible for my inclinations, inclinations and tastes. I'm locked in like all individuals, like all of us. There is no taste court."