Brave survivor who was drugged and raped by 50 males finds love once more after horror ordeal
Rape survivor, Gisele Pelicot attributes her courage to waive her anonymity during her court trial where she faced her multiple attackers was thanks to her new love
Gisele Pelicot has revealed she has found love again(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Rape survivor Gisele Pelicot has found love again after her sick husband encouraged dozens of men to assault her, saying” we still have a right to happiness”.
In a brave move, Gisele waived her right to anonymity in a shocking rape trial that gripped the world. Over a 10-year period, Gisele, 73, was repeatedly drugged and raped by her now ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, who also invited more than 50 men into the family home to rape her while she was unconscious.
Until authorities uncovered wretched footage of the assaults following an upskirting incident, she had no idea she had been sexually assaulted.
Dominique is now serving 20 years in prison, and Gisele has been forced to rebuild her life as she struggles to come to terms with her husband of decades.
She has penned a memoir A Hymn To Life: Shame Has to Change Sides which outlines the trial, her marriage and the broken relationship she shares with her children. Ahead of its release, the grandmother shared how she found love again.
Gisele said that her new beau, Jean-Loup, a widower, was by her side during the trial, leaving the courtroom at her request when graphic evidence was shown.
She kept their relationship a secret in case it was used against her during proceedings.
She said: “He was a gentleman. He stayed in the shadows. But today, he’s in the light with me.”
The couple met through mutual friends after she moved to Île de Ré in Western France in June 2023, and bonded over being French bulldog owners -although Gisele says falling in love was an “accident”.
“It happened almost by accident,” she said. “ I never never thought I’d fall in love again or would even want to.
“Neither of us expected it at all. And we thought, ‘Why not? Why not allow ourselves to be happy?’”
Speaking to Vogue, she said: “If anyone had told me that I’d find love at this age, I’d never have believed it.”
She added: “I’m saying, ‘No ladies, we still have a right to happiness. I am proof that anything is possible.’”
Gisele admitted that the first time the pair, who now live together, were intimate as a “mixture of tears and laughter” and they were like “two teenagers starting a new romance”.
She credits Jean-Loup for giving her the strength to waive her privacy, which resulted in the world seeing her abusers. She also said she felt “nourished and warmed” by “that crowd outside, swelling and escorting me every day.”
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