French actor Gérard Depardieu has been ordered to face trial over allegations that he raped and assaulted fellow actor Charlotte Arnould in 2018. The decision comes from a French investigating judge, sources confirmed on Tuesday.
This ruling follows another case earlier this year, where a Paris court handed the 76-year-old star an 18-month suspended sentence for sexually assaulting two women during a film shoot in 2021. That conviction, along with other accusations in recent years, has overshadowed the career of a man once celebrated as one of France’s greatest actors.
Depardieu has firmly denied Arnould’s claims, insisting their encounters were consensual.
Arnould, who first came forward in 2018, described the moment as a relief: “Seven years later, seven years of horror and hell… I think I’m having trouble realising how huge this is. I’m relieved.”
Her lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, said the court’s decision was an important step: “This is a form of judicial truth for Charlotte while she awaits the criminal trial.”
The case had initially been closed due to lack of evidence, but Arnould pursued it as a civil party, prompting a judicial investigation in 2020. The trial date has not yet been set.
Depardieu, who has appeared in more than 200 films and TV projects, denied the accusations in a 2023 letter to French newspaper Le Figaro, writing: “Never, ever, have I abused a woman.”
Arnould, who was 22 at the time of the alleged assaults, later went public in 2021, saying she had been raped twice in August 2018 at Depardieu’s Paris home. She described being in fragile health at the time.
Depardieu’s reputation has been further strained by more than a dozen similar claims. In May, a Paris court found him guilty of sexual assault against two women working on the set of Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters). He was also ordered to register as a sex offender.
