Fifty men were found guilty of raping the woman who is now trying to rebuild her life and has even found love again
Gisèle Pelicot has emerged as a global feminist hero in 2024 by turning her horrific personal story into a public battle against rape culture.
On December 19, 2024, her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, was convicted of orchestrating her rape dozens of times by multiple men over nearly a decade, following a trial that shocked France and prompted the country to examine systemic sexual violence. Fifty men were found guilty of rape or sexual assault that day.
Outside the court in southern France where his rapists were convicted and sentenced, Pelicot said: “Shame must change sides.” This became a rallying cry that helped change the narrative around sexual violence in France and beyond.
With the release of his new memoir, “A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides”, scheduled for next week, Pelicot, 73, speaks openly and reveals what until now he has only shared in court. This Wednesday, the woman gave her first television interview since the trial to the public channel France 5.
Here are the main points.
1. The moment she found out she had been raped
Pelicot described her shock when police officers called her and revealed that her 50-year-old husband had been mixing sleeping pills into her food and drink, then inviting strangers to rape her while he recorded the assaults.
“I don’t recognize myself in those photographs. I said, ‘That’s not me,'” he said of the images that investigators showed him. “Then I put on my glasses and discovered a lifeless woman with a man I didn’t know in bed. I think my brain disassociated.”
2. Red flags
Looking back, Pelicot admits there were warning signs, but at the time he didn’t allow himself to confront them.
She remembers noticing a yellow stain on a pair of pants shortly after she and Dominique Pelicot moved to the village of Mazan in the south of France. “I asked him if he could be drugging me and he started crying. Was it my subconscious? I don’t know.”
Another incident involved a white beer that appeared to change color after Dominique Pelicot added what he said was mint syrup. When she questioned the fact, he poured the contents into the sink. “At the time, I didn’t think about anything,” he recalled.
3. Visit by Dominique Pelicot
Despite the harrowing ordeal that Pelicot suffered, the woman still intends to visit her ex-husband in prison as part of her “healing process”.
During the trial, he never addressed him directly, he revealed. Now, he wants to “look him straight in the eye and ask him, ‘Why did you do this?’”
His view of his 50-year marriage is complex. Although he described feelings of betrayal and outrage, he said he still wants to hold on to happy memories because they are all he has in his life.
4. Separated children
Pelicot’s interview was an opportunity for her to address the fissures that have formed in her family since the revelations. The woman said that it is wrong to think that “a tragedy unites a family”. His relationship with his daughter Caroline is slowly healing, but his son David “needs more time”, he said.
“I chose to live with Mr. Pelicot,” he explained. “They didn’t choose their father, so they’re in a different position, and I think the journey will take longer.”
5. New boyfriend
Pelicot never imagined he would fall in love again, not even if he wanted to. However, in 2023, she met a man she identified only as Jean-Loup. “Meeting him was incredible,” he said. “I met this man who also went through difficult times and it changed our lives.”
Camille Knight contributed to this report
