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The Interview

The Woman at the Center of the French Rape Trial That Shocked the World

The Interview

The New York Times

News, Society & Culture

3.91.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2026

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Gisèle Pelicot opens up about surviving years of secret abuse and her life today.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

From the New York Times, this is the interview.

0:06.3

I'm Lulu Garcia-Navarro.

0:09.1

It is one of the most heinous sexual abuse stories in history.

0:14.0

Giselle Pellico was drugged and raped repeatedly by the person she trusted most in the world.

0:20.2

Her husband, Dominique Pelicoe,

0:22.2

who invited dozens of men into their bedroom to also rape her while she was heavily sedated.

0:28.5

Giselle discovered what had happened to her in 2020, after Dominique Pelico was caught

0:33.0

filming up women's skirts at a local supermarket. After police arrested him, they found thousands of videos and images of his wife being violently

0:42.1

assaulted by at least 70 men.

0:45.0

Many were stored in a digital folder titled Abuse.

0:48.8

Four years later, France's largest ever mass rape trial began.

0:52.7

Even then, we might have never known Giselle Pelico's name,

0:55.8

but in a decision that shocked the world, she waived her right to anonymity and the trial became

1:01.2

public. That made her a global icon and inspired a movement of women who marched in demonstrations

1:07.1

all over France to demand change to the country's consent laws. Still, despite her

1:13.2

fame, Giselle remained in many ways an enigma. Outside of the trial, she'd never sat down to tell

1:18.7

her story until now. She's written a new memoir called A Hymn to Life, Shame Has to Change Sides. And over an

1:26.9

extended interview last month in Paris,

1:29.0

her first with an American media outlet, Giselle spoke with me about the early years of her marriage,

1:34.4

the toll the abuse and trial took on her and her family, and how, despite everything she's been

1:39.6

through, she's found love and a sense of peace again. What you'll hear is a voiceover in English of Giselle's original French answers.

1:48.3

Here's my interview with the extraordinary Giselle Pelico.

...

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