French Actor Gérard Depardieu In Custody For Alleged Sexual Assault After 13 Women Accuse Him Of Harassment

French actor Gérard Depardieu is being held in police custody in Paris for questioning over sexual assault claims. On Monday, Depardieu, 75, was detained by the 3rd Judicial District Police in France. 

Known for the French films Le Monde and Green Card, Depardieu was accused of sexual assault by two women on the set of both films in 2014 and 2021. In January, Depardieu also had a separate sexual assault complaint dropped. The case was brought by actress Hélène Darras, who accused Depardieu of assaulting her in 2008 on the set of the film Disco.

In 2018, Depardieu was also charged with raping actress Charlotte Arnould. Due to lack of evidence, the case was closed in 2019. However, it reopened in the summer of 2020 on another charge of rape and sexual assault.

Depardieu’s history of alleged sexual assaults includes 13 other women who claimed Depardieu had acted inappropriately or harassed them. Darras was one of the 13 women. Depardieu denied these claims in an open letter to French outlet Le Figaro, saying he “never, ever abused a woman.”

“I can no longer allow what I hear, what I have read about myself for several months,” he wrote. “I thought I didn’t care, but no, actually no. This all gets to me. Worse still, it wipes me out.”

In Arnould’s case in 2018, Depardieu’s lawyer stated that the actor “absolutely denies any attack, any rape.”

In 2011, Depardieu publicly urinated on the carpet of an airplane. Several passengers witnessed the incident.