French actor Gerard Depardieu has broken his silence following rape charges and sexual misconduct accusations leveled against him.
In an open letter in French newspaper Le Figaro published on Sunday (Oct. 1) titled “I finally want to tell you my truth,” the actor asserted “Never, ever have I abused a woman” and “Hurting a woman would be like kicking my own mother in the stomach”.
Depardieu wrote: “I can no longer consent to what I’ve been hearing, what I’ve been reading about myself for the past few months. I thought I didn’t care, but no, in fact, no. It’s all getting to me. Worse still, it’s burning me out.”
The actor was charged with rape in December of 2020 after actress Charlotte Arnould accused him of attacking her on two separate occasions in his home in 2018 when he was 70 and she was 22, but the case is still making its way through French courts.
In April, Depardieu was hit with a fresh batch of sexual misconduct allegations when investigative news website Mediapart published accounts from 13 women detailing sexually inappropriate behaviour that allegedly occurred during the shooting of 11 films released between 2004 and 2022. Two more women came forward with similar accusations over the summer via radio station France Inter.
While Depardieu’s Paris-based law firm Cabinet Temime has denied criminal behaviour, the letter marks the first time Depardieu has publicly spoken out in reference to any of the accusations against him.
“To the media court, to the lynching that has been reserved for me, I have only my word to defend myself,” he wrote.
Without naming Arnould, Depardieu alleges the actress “willingly came up to my bedroom” and asked to sing songs by Barbara at the Cirque d’Hiver venue in Paris, as part of the actor’s “Depardieu chante Barbara” tour. “I said no. She filed a complaint,” he maintained. “There was never any constraint, violence, or protest between us.”
None of the 13 women from Mediapart’s April exposé have pressed official charges against the actor. In response to those claims, he wrote that his actions were intended “to get a laugh,” but added: “Not everyone laughed. If, in believing I was living intensely in the present moment, I hurt or shocked anyone, it was never my intention to hurt anyone, and I beg you to excuse me for behaving like a child who wanted to entertain.”
The Cyrano De Bergerac actor’s latest film role is French cooking drama Umami that hit French theatres in May.
In response to the actor’s letter, Arnould’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt told French radio station FranceInfo on Monday (October 2) that “Mr. Depardieu is not the protector of women he claims to be.” She added: ”Mr. Depardieu says he’s telling the truth, but it’s certainly not Charlotte [Arnould’s] truth, and it certainly won’t be the truth that’s upheld by the courts.”
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