Pelicot tells Hay festival how she fell in love and was able to trust after rape ordeal

Gisele Pelicot described regaining trust and falling in love after a rape ordeal orchestrated by her former husband in France. Dominique Pelicot was jailed for 20 years for drugging and raping her and allowing other men to assault her while she was unconscious over nearly a decade. Pelicot waived anonymity during the trial and said she never expected to trust a man again, but met her partner Jean-Loup Agopian and found love at age 73. She appeared at the Hay festival to discuss her memoir A Hymn to Life and called for society to wake up to violence against women, saying it affects all borders. She expressed hope for harmony between men and women through early education.

"Gisele Pelicot has described the moment she fell in love and was able to trust again after her rape ordeal orchestrated by her former husband in France. Pelicot, 73, 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 other men to sexually assault her while she was unconscious, over almost a decade."

"Speaking at the Hay festival in Wales on Saturday, she said she never thought she could trust a man again before meeting her partner, Jean-Loup Agopian. The campaigner said: It's something that I didn't think could happen, especially at my age, first of all, I didn't really want to fall in love, but life decided otherwise. We met, our trajectories crossed at one moment and I met this young man of 73 You see, you can fall in love at any age, it happened to me, it can happen to you, I'm convinced of it."

"She said that society has got to wake up on the issue of violence against women, and that it's an appalling evil that touches all borders. I thought that my story only related to me, but I realised that, in fact, it was really the tree that hid the forest, she continued. Yet, she feels serene about the future for women, because 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."

"Maybe I'm a very optimistic person by nature, but I would hope that the human being will go towards peace and love. Last month, French authorities launched an investigation into the reappearance of a website Dominique Pelicot used to recruit dozens of strangers to rape his wife in their home between 2011 and 2020. Authorities said the French-language platform Coco h"

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