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

February 14, 2026·1 hr 4 min·5 clips
Giselle Pellicot asked her husband if he was drugging her, and his tearful denial threw her off balance.
The New York Times Interview host Lulu Garcia-Navarro sits down in Paris with Giselle Pellicot for her first conversation with an American media outlet, having previously given no extended interviews since the conclusion of France's largest ever mass rape trial. Giselle's husband Dominique Pellicot drugged her regularly over years, filmed himself and dozens of men assaulting her while she was sedated, and stored the recordings in a digital folder titled Abuse. The crimes came to light in 2020 when Dominique was arrested for filming up women's skirts at a supermarket, and police subsequently found thousands of videos and images of his wife being violently assaulted by at least 70 men, many of whom were recruited online. Four years later, France's largest ever mass rape trial began, and Giselle made the extraordinary decision to waive her right to anonymity and demand the trial be held publicly, a choice that transformed her into a global icon of survivor dignity and inspired marches across France demanding changes to consent laws. Garcia-Navarro asks Giselle about the decision to write A Hymn to Life, Shame Has to Change Sides, and Giselle explains that she wrote it to be useful, to take stock of her life, and to try to rebuild herself from the ruins of what had been done to her. The interview covers her early marriage to Dominique, which she describes as happy for many years, and the disorientation of learning that the man she had trusted completely had been secretly victimizing her throughout. Giselle speaks about the toll the trial took on her and her children, and about the peace she has found through a new relationship. Garcia-Navarro asks how Giselle managed to remain standing through everything, and Giselle responds that she needed to show that she was still a woman who stands. The tone is deeply respectful, with Garcia-Navarro allowing Giselle to tell her story at her own pace. The audience is anyone following the Pellicot case or interested in stories of extraordinary resilience in the face of systematic betrayal.

As heard by us

A harrowing, unusually direct interview about Gisele Pellicot's public witness, family damage, and refusal to carry shame.

Gisele Pellicot's first interview with an American media outlet gives this New York Times conversation a stark human center. Lulu Garcia Navarro focuses on what Pellicot chose to make public: the abuse by Dominique Pellicot, the videos and images police found after his arrest,…

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Why you'd press play

Hear Giselle Pelicot describe what happened to her, why she waived anonymity, and why speaking publicly mattered.

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