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Warning: This article contains accounts of rape and sexual abuse.
Discovery of a nightmare
Gisèle Pelicot, 73, has described the moment she learned her husband had drugged and repeatedly raped her over several years as feeling like a "tsunami." Speaking to BBC Newsnight ahead of her memoir, A Hymn To Life, she recounted the devastation of realizing the scale of Dominique Pelicot's crimes.
"Something exploded inside me," she said. "It was unbearable." The revelation forced her to call her three adult children-David, Caroline, and Florian-to break the news about their father, an experience she called the hardest of her life.
"I heard my daughter scream. It was almost inhuman."
Gisèle Pelicot
Pelicot, who waived her legal right to anonymity, said she has never regretted the decision, though she still has unanswered questions for her ex-husband, now serving a 20-year prison sentence.
The moment of revelation
The ordeal began in 2017 when Pelicot accompanied her husband to a police station in Mazan, southern France, after he was summoned for secretly filming women in a supermarket. A police officer pulled her aside and showed her two photographs of a motionless woman on a bed-images later identified as her, taken while she was drugged and unconscious.
"I didn't recognize myself," she said. "This woman was lying there as if she were dead. There were men beside her-men I didn't know."
Police informed her that her husband had systematically drugged her and invited dozens of men to rape her. The assaults, meticulously recorded and catalogued on a hard drive, spanned years. Many of the perpetrators remained unidentified.
A family shattered
Pelicot's children reacted with shock and grief. Caroline, her daughter, screamed upon hearing the news. David, the eldest, was left speechless, while Florian, the youngest, immediately asked how his mother was coping. The siblings later destroyed family belongings-furniture, photo albums-in an attempt to erase their father's presence.
"I told myself my life was in ruins," Pelicot said. "I had nothing left but my children."
Her daughter Caroline, whose photos in her underwear were found on her father's laptop, has struggled with the trauma. Pelicot described her daughter's ordeal as "perpetual torment." Though their relationship was strained during the trial, Pelicot said they are now working to rebuild it.
Medical mysteries and betrayal
For years, Pelicot suffered from unexplained memory loss and gynaecological issues. Doctors attributed her symptoms to neurological problems, unaware she was being drugged with sedatives and muscle relaxants. Her husband accompanied her to medical appointments, even sitting beside her after assaults.
"It was inconceivable that this man could have committed such horrors," she said. "I would wake up, have breakfast, and he would look me in the eye."
In court, Dominique Pelicot admitted he sought to "subdue an unbreakable woman" after she refused to participate in swinging. Pelicot believes her survival was at risk, given the severity of the abuse.
The trial that shocked France
Initially, Pelicot considered a closed-door trial to avoid public scrutiny. But after reflecting on the anonymity it would grant the 51 accused men, she chose to make the proceedings public. "I carried this shame for more than four years," she said. "It felt like a double punishment."
The 2024 trial in Avignon became a national spectacle. Pelicot walked into the courthouse daily, greeted by crowds of supporters, including women holding banners. Queen Camilla of the UK even sent a personal letter expressing admiration for her courage.
Yet the trial was grueling. Defendants and their lawyers insinuated Pelicot was complicit, forcing her to relive the trauma. "You go through hell in a courtroom," she said. "You're humiliated."
All 51 men were convicted. Dominique Pelicot received the maximum 20-year sentence, while the others were jailed for terms ranging from five to 15 years.
Unanswered questions and healing
Pelicot still grapples with why her husband orchestrated the abuse. She plans to visit him in prison to ask about his alleged involvement in the 1991 murder of a Paris estate agent-a crime he denies-and whether he assaulted their daughter Caroline, though no charges were filed due to lack of evidence.
Despite the trauma, Pelicot refuses to dismiss her 50-year marriage entirely. "I needed to believe those years weren't all a lie," she said. "Otherwise, it's as if I'd been dead."
Today, she lives on Île de Ré, a quiet island off France's Atlantic coast, where she met her current partner, Jean-Loup. "Life always holds beautiful surprises," she said. "It's brought color back into my life."
In her memoir, she reflects on resilience: "Within us, we have resources we don't even suspect. If I could do this, all victims can."
"I have always chosen to walk toward the good."
Gisèle Pelicot
