17 Details From Gisèle Pelicot’s Memoir That Show What Her 50-Year Marriage Was Really Like

Gisèle Pelicot is a 73-year-old French woman who became a media sensation when she waived her right to remain anonymous and insisted on a public trial for her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot.

In 2020, the couple had been married for almost 50 years when Gisèle was bombed. Dominique was caught taking pictures of top women at a local supermarket. When the police investigate this crime, they find photographic evidence that Dominique spent the last nine years drugging and raping Gisèle. He also invited more than 72 men to their home to rape Gisèle while she was unconscious.

Dominique and 50 other men were tried and convicted. 71-year-old Dominique was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Now, Gisèle has written a memoir, Hymn of Life: Shame Must Change Sidesabout the crime and how she endured her husband’s unfathomable betrayal.

Here are some of the revelations from Gisèle’s book about her marriage to the monster in plain sight.

1. Gisèle thought she was in a happy marriage. He was blindfolded when the police sat him down and explained the photos and videos they found. A big part of why she wrote this memoir, was to spend time trying to understand how the man she loved could be such a monster.
2. The couple met as teenagers. They married soon and had two sons and one daughter. Gisèle says Dominique’s father was authoritarian and abusive, and she believes he was sexually abused as a child.
3. Gisèle was the breadwinner in the family. Dominique tried and failed to start several businesses.
4. Both Gisèle and Dominique have cheated in the past. Gisèle dated in the 80s and Dominique lived with another woman in the 90s. Gisèle says she cheated because the marriage was tense, revealing that Dominque often sexually pressured her to do things she didn’t want to do such as allowing Dominique to videotape her during sex, swinging and back sex.
5. The couple divorced in 2001 for financial reasons – to keep assets from being seized by creditors after one of Dominque’s businesses failed. They got married again in 2007.
6. In 2013 the couple retired and moved from Paris to southeast France. Gisèle thought this was the happiest moment in their marriage. However, Dominique had started drugging and raping her around 2011, before they left Paris. He used a website called Coco Chat to lure unknown men to the couple’s home and rape an unconscious Gisèle.
7. The police found more than 20,000 photos and videos that Dominique had taken of being abused by Gisèle, organized by name and the perpetrator.
8. To avoid detection, Dominique hired only non-smokers and insisted they not wear cologne or use condoms.
9. As a result of being drugged and raped, Gisèle began to have “mysterious” health problems. She lost weight, had “constant gynecological problems”, developed anxiety and memory problems, and lost her crown due to oral rape.
10. Police also found photos taken by Dominique and a hidden camera of her daughter and grandchildren in the shower.
11. In France, the victim has the power to decide whether the case is closed or public. The lawyer was surprised when Gisèle said she wanted it to be public. They expected him to ask for it to be sealed so that his name would not be revealed.
12. In Dominique’s case, a psychiatrist testified that she had a split personality. He also said that Dominque was an unsympathetic and sexist person.
13. Dominique told the judge that he avoided watching the video evidence that was being presented because it would incriminate him.
14. One of the defendants said, “If I wanted to rape someone, I would not have gone to a fifty-seven-year-old woman, I would have chosen someone more beautiful than her.” However, there is video evidence that this man was chosen, and he was convicted.
15. Gisèle had to watch all the videos before the trial to avoid arrest.
16. Dominique testified that he was motivated by a desire to “force
    a woman who does not submit to submission.” Gisèle writes that she thinks he meant that he should punish her for having restrictions in all their relationships, such as not wanting to give in to his desire for swinging or anal sex. While she was unconscious, Dominique even dressed her in the kind of underwear she had previously refused to buy.
17. Gisèle wonders if Dominique abused their daughter, and plans to visit him in prison to ask.