Gisèle Pelicot recounts her ex-husband’s “unthinkable” crimes in first U.S. TV interview since mass rape trial

Gisèle Pelicot, the French woman who became a global symbol of courage when she publicly stepped forward to testify against her ex-husband and dozens of other men in a mass rape trial, told “CBS Sunday Morning” that she believes her story “could be useful to others.”

That’s why she’s opening up about her story in a memoir, “A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides.” She said she’s speaking directly to those who might ask, “How could this woman go through what she went through and still be standing?”

In her first U.S. broadcast interview, airing on “CBS Sunday Morning” February 15, Pelicot told correspondent Seth Doane that she “used to be a very discreet woman.” 

Pelicot waived her right to anonymity and insisted court proceedings be made public during the 4-month trial against her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, and 51 other men accused of raping her over the course of nearly a decade at his invitation. All the men were found guilty, and Dominique was sentenced to the maximum of 20 years.

In the memoir, Pelicot recounts the shock and horror of discovering that, for years, her then- husband had been drugging her and recruiting other men to assault her in their home.

“I never imagined that I was living with a man who was drugging his wife in his own home. It was impossible,” she told Doane. 

Pelicot had suffered unexplained health problems, and looking back, she says there were other signs something was wrong, recalling several unsettling incidents when her drinks tasted strange — at times even undrinkable — “as if mint had been put in my glass.” She also recalls her husband preparing their potatoes separately. But she never imagined her husband was lacing them.

“How can you imagine that your husband is drugging you? It’s unthinkable — impossible.  In fact, I was manipulated for about ten years. Because he was looking me in the eyes every day while knowing he was poisoning me. But I never saw that. I saw a kind, caring man,” she said.

Watch more of Seth Doane’s interview with Gisèle Pelicot this weekend on “CBS Sunday Morning.” Pelicot’s memoir, “A Hymn to Life,” will be published next week by Penguin Press.