Gisèle Pelicot, the woman at the heart of France’s most significant rape trial, recounted to BBC Newsnight the profound impact of discovering her husband’s years-long deception. She described being “crushed by horror” to learn he had systematically drugged her into unconsciousness, subsequently inviting numerous men to perpetrate acts of rape against her.
Describing the moment of realization regarding the extent of her husband’s crimes, Ms. Pelicot, aged 73, stated, “Something exploded inside me.” She likened the experience to a “tsunami.”
In an extensive interview conducted ahead of the release of her memoir, titled “A Hymn To Life,” she detailed the immense difficulty she faced when informing her three children about their father’s actions. This conversation, she revealed, was likely the most challenging experience of her life.
A Descent into Hell
She recalled the pivotal moment she chose to forgo her legal right to anonymity, a decision she has never regretted. Ms. Pelicot also expressed a lingering desire to ask her now ex-husband, whom she refers to as “Mr. Pelicot,” about certain unresolved matters. He is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
The grandeur of Paris’s Hôtel de Ville, adorned with ceiling frescoes and rich wood paneling, stands in stark contrast to the stark courtrooms where Ms. Pelicot was last publicly seen during the four-month trial that profoundly shook France.
She recounted the instant that marked the commencement of what she terms her “descent into hell.” This began when she accompanied her husband, Dominique Pelicot, to a local police station. He had been summoned regarding the surreptitious filming of women beneath their skirts in a supermarket.
A police officer then separated Ms. Pelicot, initiating a series of increasingly intrusive questions about her husband’s character and their marital life. When asked about his personality, she described him as a “great guy.” To questions about engaging in swinging, she offered a firm denial.
“He told me: ‘I am about to show you something you won’t like.’ I didn’t understand right away.”
The officer then presented her with two photographs depicting a woman lying comatose on a bed. These images were among thousands of pictures and videos her husband had captured while she was under the influence of sedatives. The sheer volume of this material underscored the systematic nature of his abuse.
Visibly recounting the shock that overwhelmed her, Ms. Pelicot’s voice grew softer but remained resolute. “I didn’t recognise myself,” she stated. “This woman was lying on the bed as if she were dead. There are men next to her. I didn’t understand who they were. I didn’t know them. I’d never met them.”
Authorities informed Ms. Pelicot that she had been subjected to repeated sexual assaults by numerous men. Despite her husband meticulously recording, labeling, and cataloging these assaults on a hard drive, many of the perpetrators remained unidentified.
Following this revelation, she was advised by the police to avoid being alone. Ms. Pelicot returned home in a state of shock and contacted a friend. “I told her: ‘Dominique is in custody because he raped me and had me raped.’ That’s when I used the word rape. It was after five hours of questioning that I put words to Mr. Pelicot’s crime.”
The difficult task of informing her three adult children—David, Caroline, and Florian—about their father’s actions followed. “I was well aware that for my children it was going to be immensely difficult,” Ms. Pelicot admitted. She now considers those three phone calls the most arduous undertaking of her life.
She vividly recalled her daughter Caroline’s reaction: “I heard my daughter scream. It was almost inhuman, that scream.” Her eldest son, David, was in a state of shock, while Florian, the youngest, immediately inquired about her well-being. “They realised I was alone, and that I might do something stupid. For them, too, it was like an explosion.”
Her children traveled to be with her in Mazan the following day. Subsequently, all three have recounted their efforts to discard or destroy family possessions—ranging from furniture to photo albums—in a symbolic attempt to erase their father’s presence from their lives. Ms. Pelicot observed this process without intervention.
“I told myself that my life was in ruins, that I had nothing left apart from my children,” she reflected.
Since David’s birth, when Ms. Pelicot was in her early twenties, her children had been the central focus of her existence. Motherhood provided an avenue to move beyond a childhood marked by significant sadness.
“I lost my mother at a very young age, my brother and my father too,” she recalled. “So I needed to rebuild everything I had lost.”
During the interview, Ms. Pelicot spoke fondly of her parents, whose marital relationship had a profound impact on her own understanding of love. Her mother passed away from cancer when Gisèle was nine, plunging her father and the family into a grief from which they never fully recovered.
Meeting Dominique Pelicot, a handsome and similarly troubled young man of 19, offered her an opportunity for a fresh start. They married in 1973. “We were very in love, and we threw ourselves into life. And we started a family, because that was the main goal for me,” she stated, her voice steady.
Inconceivable Betrayal
By 2011, Ms. Pelicot began experiencing memory loss, which she initially attributed to neurological issues. Concurrently, she suffered from persistent gynecological problems. These symptoms were later discovered to be a direct result of the sedatives she was administered and the repeated assaults by strangers.
She consulted multiple physicians, with her husband consistently present during inconclusive examinations. He was also by her side each morning following the nocturnal assaults.
“It was inconceivable that this man who shared my life could have committed these horrors,” Ms. Pelicot avowed. “I would get up and have breakfast, and he would look at me in the eye. And I don’t know how he could have betrayed me for so many years.”
She would later learn that her husband administered powerful muscle relaxants along with the sedatives, a measure intended to mask any physical pain she might experience the following day.
Ms. Pelicot believes her body was nearing its limit and her survival was in jeopardy. “It is hard for me to recognise that he had no mercy,” she stated.
The repercussions of these revelations have significantly impacted the entire family, Ms. Pelicot shared. “It’s wrong to think that such a tragedy brings a family together. It took us a long time to rebuild ourselves.”
Her daughter Caroline, in particular, has been subjected to what Ms. Pelicot describes as “perpetual torment,” stemming from the discovery of photos of her asleep in her underwear on her father’s laptop. “The incestuous look he cast on his daughter, I found utterly unbearable.”
Dominique Pelicot offered conflicting accounts for these images. Caroline remains convinced that she too was drugged and raped, but insufficient evidence has prevented any prosecution in her case.
Tensions between mother and daughter ran high during the trial, with Caroline expressing feelings of being a “forgotten victim.” At various points, both before and after the legal proceedings, Ms. Pelicot experienced periods of estrangement from some of her children.
“It took Caroline time, because she’s filled with hatred and anger – feelings I don’t have,” Ms. Pelicot explained. “I have neither hatred, nor anger. I felt betrayed and outraged by Mr. Pelicot, but that’s just how I am.”
Ms. Pelicot indicated that she and her daughter are actively working on repairing their relationship. “Each of us needed time to find our own path. Today, we’re trying to bring each other peace, and I hope we’re on the right road to healing.”
Further Revelations
One revelation followed another. In 2022, authorities informed Ms. Pelicot that her husband had confessed to the attempted rape of a young woman. He was also under investigation for the 1991 killing of a 23-year-old estate agent in Paris, an allegation he denies.
The possibility that her husband might be a murderer in addition to a serial rapist presents an almost insurmountable burden for Ms. Pelicot to contemplate. “I dare hope he is not the perpetrator of this heinous crime, because otherwise it would once again be a descent into hell, both for me and for his children.”
While the investigation was underway, she relocated to the tranquil Île de Ré, a small island off France’s Atlantic coast. “I really wanted to stay in the shadows,” she stated. “I absolutely didn’t want anyone to know who I was.”
As is customary for rape victims in France, Ms. Pelicot was entitled to a closed-door trial, affording her complete anonymity and barring media coverage. She had initially resisted her daughter’s suggestions for an open hearing, concerned about solidifying her identity as a victim of a heinous crime.
However, while walking on the beach four months before the trial commenced, a fundamental shift occurred within her. She realized that a closed hearing would extend anonymity to the men on trial. Furthermore, it would leave her significantly outnumbered—51 men and 40 lawyers facing her, her legal team, and her children.
‘If I Was Able to Do This, All Victims Can Too’
“For more than four years, I carried this shame,” Ms. Pelicot commented. “And I felt that it was like a double punishment for victims, and a suffering we imposed on ourselves.”
Her legal counsel granted her one week to decide whether she truly wished to open the trial to the public and media. She required only a single night. “By the next morning, I knew,” she affirmed.
This decision represented an extraordinary act of courage. “I have never regretted my decision, not once,” she asserted. “It was also a message to all victims who don’t dare to do the same… It could give them some of the strength I found in me.”
“Because,” she stated without hesitation, “within us we have resources that we don’t even suspect. And if I was able to do this, all victims can too. I am convinced of this.”
In 2024, the Pelicot trial captured the attention of France and the global community. Her ability to expose the depravity she endured—what she repeatedly refers to as “filth”—stands as a testament to her resilience.
Each day, she held her head high as she entered the Avignon courthouse. A gathering of women assembled outside to express their solidarity, a gesture she acknowledged with a slight nod and a hand placed over her heart.
Surrounded by numerous cameras, Ms. Pelicot stated that they provided her with “unbelievable strength.” “For me, they soothed what was happening within the courtroom,” she added. “On my own, I think it would have been difficult.”
Even Queen Camilla reached out from the UK, expressing her admiration through a personal letter, which deeply surprised Ms. Pelicot. “I felt moved and very honoured… I am grateful to her,” she said.
Throughout the interview, Ms. Pelicot maintained a composed and assured demeanor. Later, she was shown videos of French women, filmed by Newsnight, thanking her for her decision to seek an open hearing.
“Thank you for being so brave,” one woman stated.
“We are here to support you! Life is beautiful, madame!” said another.
As one smiling face followed another, Ms. Pelicot, for the first time during the interview, shed a tear. “It touches me enormously because these are the faces I met during the trial,” she explained. “I saw them putting up posters, I saw their collages, I saw the banners.”
“They were truly exceptional,” she smiled.
Within the courtroom, Ms. Pelicot and her family endured nearly four months of concealed insinuations and overt accusations of complicity from both the defendants and their legal representatives. “You go through hell in a courtroom. You’re really humiliated,” she recounted.
At the time, this led her to characterize the proceedings as the “trial of cowardice.” Even now, her voice rises slightly as she recalls those moments. “They didn’t want to own up to what they had done,” she stated, referring to the 50 men her husband had permitted to abuse her. She felt they behaved as if they had committed a minor offense, refusing to acknowledge her inability to consent.
“Then, the video attesting to the truth would be shown,” she explained. “We could see that man raping me. He’d be asked those questions again, and would reply: ‘No, I didn’t rape her, I didn’t have any intention of raping her.’ So where are we supposed to go from there?” she wondered aloud, exasperated. “I think that as far as they’re concerned, they couldn’t have raped me because Mr. Pelicot was there and had given his consent. Therefore, they didn’t consider it rape,” she concluded.
This line of argument was dismissed by the seven judges presiding over the case. All defendants were convicted. Her former husband, whose divorce was finalized shortly before the trial, received the maximum sentence of 20 years. The other 50 men were incarcerated for terms ranging from five to 15 years.
Rebuilding Her Life
As Ms. Pelicot spoke, a tall, bespectacled widower named Jean-Loup observed discreetly. She met him on Île de Ré in 2023. “We had this stroke of luck,” she said, her voice measured and warm. “We fell in love like teenagers, when neither of us was expecting it.”
They have been a couple ever since. “Life put a man on my path who has the same values, the same principles as me – and who has also been through many ordeals in his life.”
“So you see,” she continued, tilting her head slightly, “life always holds beautiful surprises. It’s brought a lot of colour into our lives.”
It has been nearly six years since Ms. Pelicot was shown photographs of a woman who appeared “dead.” The question of why her ex-husband subjected her to years of abuse continues to loom large. Dominique Pelicot admitted in court that he wanted to “subdue an unbreakable woman.”
“He would have liked me to participate in swinging sessions and I always refused because I have a sense of modesty,” she explained. “I think he found a way around it by subduing me.”
“But how he could have brought himself to do what he did is a different question. I might ask myself this for the rest of my life,” she stated.
Ms. Pelicot indicated her intention to visit him in jail to seek answers regarding any potential involvement in their daughter Caroline’s alleged abuse and the murder case he has been connected to. “I need to meet him to have answers. I don’t know if I will, but I need to look at him straight in the eye.”
Meanwhile, the process of rebuilding her life continues. “I am healing,” she confirmed.
She resists the notion of completely disavowing the life she shared with her ex-husband. “In order to live, I have needed to think that the 50 years I spent with Mr. Pelicot were not all just a lie. Because otherwise, it’s as if I’d been dead. As if I no longer existed.”
During one of her infrequent appearances on the witness stand, Ms. Pelicot declared to her ex-husband that his betrayal had been “immeasurable.”
“I always tried to lead you towards the light, but you chose the depths of the human soul,” she said.
This sentiment resonates in her current perspective. In life, she stated, “you always have to choose, to decide which path to follow. There is the good and the bad.”
“As for me,” she concluded in her poised voice, “I have always chosen to walk toward the good.”