It has been established that reports claiming that Hiba Abouk, the Spanish wife of Moroccan footballer, Achraf Hakimi, demanded half of his assets but everything was in his mother’s name is false.
Recall that the internet was set abuzz few weeks ago following news that Hiba would leave the marriage penniless after their divorce because the 24-year-old footballer had no asset to his name.
In a new update, the African Report has stated that the report is blatantly false and not based on reality, and that it perfectly illustrates the results of an MIT study published in 2018, which found that fake news spreads faster than real information.
Hakimi’s mother had also earlier stated that the story was new to her because she didn’t know her son put all his properties in her name, as claimed online.
An investigative journalist, Rym Bousmid, who dug into the rumour to discover how it started also concluded that there was no element of truth in it.
“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 wrote in The African Report.
Gilles Verdez, a French journalist and sports reporter, also spoke out against the claims, stressing that they are “fake news” and that it’s impossible for Hakimi to put his property in his mother’s name.
“But it’s not true that he put the property in his mother’s name, that wouldn’t be possible. Not in Spain, not in Morocco, not in France,” the reporter said.
Meanwhile, Hakimi and his wife are yet to comment on the controversy.