At 73, Gisèle Pelicot says she's proof that the story doesn't have to end with what was done to you. The French woman, whose ex-husband was convicted in a widely watched trial of drugging her and allowing more than 50 men to rape her over more than a decade, spoke at a 92NY event where actors Mariska Hargitay and Marisa Tomei read from her memoir, A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides. People reports she shared the "real gift from life" she has received since her ordeal: a new romantic relationship.
Pelicot said she had the "good fortune to meet and fall in love. ... We are putting our lives forward. And I think if I can convey anything, I wanna convey that idea that you need to have this hope, you need to have this idea that it's there and we have to work towards it and we have to try to find a way to get it." Pelicot also spoke of how the experience changed her understanding of community. She said the women who showed up daily at the courthouse, writing letters and packing an overflow room, "gave me strength" and underscored how "we are all connected."
Meanwhile, AFP reports France is again investigating a website tied to Pelicot's rape case. Prosecutors in Paris on Tuesday said they've opened a probe into the apparent relaunch under a new name of Coco, a French-language site previously linked to rape, child sexual abuse, and murder; it had been shut down in June 2024. Dominique Pelicot used a Coco chatroom to arrange for strangers to rape his wife. A lawyer for Coco founder Isaac Steidl says he has no connection to the new platform.
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