French rape survivor Gisele Pelicot reveals pain, resilience in memoirs

Pelicot became a global icon in the fight against sexual violence in 2024 during the trial of her ex-husband Dominique and dozens of strangers who raped her while she was unconscious.

The first extracts of her memoirs, titled "A Hymn to Life" and written with French author Judith Perrignon, were revealed late Tuesday ahead of the publication of the book in 22 languages on February 17.

Le Monde newspaper earned the exclusive right to print select passages covering the full arc of Pelicot's 50-year relationship -- which she stresses was not a nightmarish ordeal, but life with someone she considered a "great guy".

"Like every couple, we had difficult moments, but we loved each other, I'm sure of that, and we had three children," Pelicot told French magazine Telerama in the first of a series of promotional interviews about the book on Wednesday.

The life-shattering realisation that Dominique Pelicot was not just a duplicitous husband, but a serial sexual abuser and possibly a murderer, is rendered in vivid detail.

She reveals her shock when first called by police to talk about her ex-husband and recounts her horror as she examines photographs of herself being raped under the influence of sedatives he administered to her.

"I didn't recognise the men. Or this woman. Her cheek was so flabby. Her mouth so limp. She was like a rag doll," writes the 73-year-old, according to the French-language version.

Ahead of her 2024 trial in Avignon, in a decision that turned her into a public figure, she declined the right to have the hearings behind closed doors, saying she wanted the world to know what she had been subjected to.

"When I think back to the moment I made my decision, I realise that if I had been 20 years younger, I might not have dared to refuse a closed session," she wrote, according to the extract.

"I would have been afraid of the stares, those damned stares that a woman of my generation has always had to deal with," she added.

In the nearly four-month trial, 51 men, including her husband, were convicted.
'Happy woman'
With her brown bobbed haircut and round sunglasses, Pelicot has become an international feminist symbol, inspiring a change to French rape laws and a public reckoning with the problem of drugging women.

Veteran British actor Emma Thompson, who is set to narrate the audiobook in English, is one of numerous celebrity admirers.

In a post on Instagram, Thompson said the "absolutely extraordinary" story was "difficult to read out loud" but that it "inspires courage and compassion but also crucially demands change".

"I said to myself that this work could be useful, that my story could give hope to other people, victims in particular, to traumatised women," Pelicot told Telerama about her motivation for committing her story to the page.

She said she was now a "happy woman", having found love again in a new relationship as she rebuilt her life on the blustery French Atlantic island of Ile de Re.

In an early review, Le Monde praised the book, saying: "Gisele Pelicot tells her story without bravado or self-pity."

Dominique Pelicot was jailed for 20 years for drugging his wife and recruiting strangers to rape her, then meticulously documenting the abuse in files on his computer.

He has also been charged with the rape and murder of a woman in Paris in 1991 and a rape in a suburb of the capital in 1999 -- two cold cases that investigators re-opened.

He has also been accused of rape by his daughter, Caroline Darian, after sexualised photos of her were found on his computer. He denies this.

Darian had publicly accused her mother of abandoning her in the aftermath of the trial, but the two women have "started talking again", according to a recent interview.