French actor Gerard Depardieu has been ordered to stand trial on charges of raping and sexually assaulting actress Charlotte Arnold at his Paris home in 2018.
Depardieu, France’s biggest movie star, has been under investigation in the case since 2020. A trial date has not yet been set.
In May, a Paris court gave a 76-year-old man an 18-month suspended sentence in a separate case in which he was convicted of sexually assaulting two women in a Paris film set in 2021.
Arnould, whose father was a friend of Depardieu’s, reported the actor to police in August 2018, days after the alleged attacks. Arnould was 22 at the time and Depardieu was 70.
In an open letter to Le Figaro in October 2023, Depardieu denied the allegations, saying that any encounters with Arnould had been consensual. “Never, never, have I abused a woman,” he wrote.
Arnould’s lawyer, Karine Durrieu Diegbolt, said a judge at the Paris Criminal Court has ordered a trial for sexual assault and rape by digital penetration on August 7 and 13, 2018. Durrieu Diegbolt said she and Arnould have been acquitted and convicted of the case.
Le Monde reported that the public prosecutor’s recommendation for the trial stated that Depardieu “constrained the victim to submit to his will to impose sexual acts on her, that she had no way of objecting.”
Arnould, 29, wrote on social media: “Seven years later, seven years of horror and hell… I think I’m struggling to understand how huge this is. I’m relieved.”
In a separate trial earlier this year, Depardieu, who has made more than 200 films and TV series, was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 54-year-old dresser and a 34-year-old assistant director on the set of the feature film Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) in Paris in September 2021. The judge ruled that his name should be added to the sex offender register.
Depardieu’s conviction in May was seen as a turning point for the #MeToo movement in France. He became the highest-profile figure in the French film industry to be convicted of sexual assault after France was accused of being slow to take women’s claims of abuse seriously. Depardieu denied the charges, and his lawyer said he would appeal his conviction.
In December 2023, as Depardieu was formally investigated for rape and sexual assault in the Arnould case, and also faced scrutiny for sexist comments revealed in a TV documentary, French President Emmanuel Macron defended him, saying that “he makes France proud.” Asked at the time about removing the national award from the award, Macron said, “You will never see me participating in a manhunt… I hate this kind of thing.”
Depardieu has denied all allegations of sexual assault. He said at his sexual assault trial earlier this year that the media had used the allegations against him to damage his reputation. He attacked the #MeToo movement, as well as the women who had held protest signs outside a concert tour he was on at the time of the allegations. “This movement will become terror,” he said.
Agence France-presse contributed to this report
