For years he was one of the regulars in the sports editorial team of VTM, but former journalist Tom Coninx has been out of the picture for quite some time. The man disappeared towards Italy, and a Flemish weekly magazine now paints a rather poor picture of the once so popular glamor boy.
From glamor boy to persona non grata
It was again Hello everyone that investigated how one of the former ‘glamour boys’ of Flemish television is currently doing. As an emerging talent, Coninx was picked up early on by the public broadcaster, where he was immediately regarded as a fashionable person who gave the sports editorial team a new look. The story is somewhat reminiscent of that of Ruben Van Gucht.
The presenter had an impeccable image for a long time, which suffered a first major dent in 2008. Coninx was allowed to go to Beijing for the Olympic Games, but is also said to have made reports there for FM Brussels, according to reports HLN and Hello everyone. The atmosphere with many colleagues and managers finally became seriously clouded.
High-profile switch to VTM
In 2011, Tom would sign an exclusivity contract with competitor VTM, which then paid a lot of money for the football rights. Coninx became the face of the football programs, but also had to deal with a flood of rumors about infidelity. Until then it was only known that he had a wife, Olivia de Decker de Brandeken, and two children with Lola (16) and Arthur (13). A first ‘slip’ with politician Katia della Faille was eagerly picked up in the Flemish press at the time.
Stormy love affairs
Another stormy affair followed in 2015, if we can believe the then heavily pregnant Waregem café owner Djoeke Van Houcke. She accuses Coninx of adultery with her, resulting in a child. The former VTM sports anchor remains silent in all languages and later indicates that he ‘hadn’t heard anything from those people’.
In 2018, VTM fired Coninx, who himself spoke of a financial issue. Since then, he has mainly been busy making videos for news websites (although a small company that included politician Els Ampe went bankrupt earlier), if we can believe father Alain. In private, Tom found happiness with an Italian student he met at the time. “Ah, Tom now divides his time between Brussels and Naples,” says Alain. “He is married to Luigia, the former student who is now a lawyer. She also comes to Brussels often, so they are never away from each other for long. And they have had a son for a year and a half now. So Tom is doing very well.” According to the father Hello everyone.
