Gisèle Pelicot, the French campaigner who was drugged and sexually abused by her former husband and dozens of other men over nearly a decade, has revealed she has found love again. Speaking at the Hay festival in Wales on Saturday, the 73-year-old said she never thought she could trust a man again before meeting her partner, Jean-Loup Agopian.
Pelicot waived her right to anonymity during the trial of Dominique Pelicot, who was jailed for 20 years in 2024 for drugging and raping her and allowing others to assault her while she was unconscious. She told the festival: “It’s something that I didn’t think could happen, especially at my age … I didn’t really want to fall in love, but life decided otherwise.”
She added: “I didn’t think that I’d be able to trust a man, but it’s what happened to me, so you see that everything can be allowed in life, you must never despair.” Pelicot appeared at the festival to discuss her memoir, A Hymn to Life, and was interviewed on stage by Lady Kennedy.
Pelicot said “society has got to wake up” to violence against women, calling it an “appalling evil that touches all borders”. She said she feels “serene” about the future, adding: “I think that we can all live together in harmony, men and women, and I think it’s a question of educating our children very young.”
Last month, French authorities launched an investigation into the reappearance of a website Dominique Pelicot used to recruit strangers to rape his wife. The platform, Coco, was shut down in June 2024 but has since resurfaced. Pelicot described it as an “absolute miracle” to be speaking on stage, given the heavy sedation she endured.
Pelicot also spoke about her daughter, Caroline Darian, who is pursuing legal action against Dominique Pelicot. She said Darian “didn’t find justice” during her case, and praised her advocacy group M’endors pas, which campaigns against chemical submission.
