Gerard Depardieu “broke” his silence about the charges of rape and sexual assault leveled against him in recent years, dealing with these cases in his open letter to the newspaper “Le Figaro”.

“I can no longer allow what I hear, what I have been reading about myself for several months. I thought I didn’t care, but no, I really don’t. All this bothers me. Even worse, they are “wiping me out”wrote the famous actor.

The rape lawsuit against the French actor, made by the actress Charlotte Arnold in 2018, will be brought to court. In addition, investigative news site Mediapart published an in-depth report in April in which 13 women accused the actor of sexual misconduct, while France Inter radio station reported two new allegations over the summer.

Depardieu denied the allegations in an open letter published on the website of “Le Figaro” newspaper on Sunday night and titled “I finally want to tell you the truth”.

The actor “responded” to the accusation of rape by Arnould, without mentioning her name, implying that she had come with her consent to his room. The actress, whose parents were old acquaintances of Depardieu, first approached the actor with the hope of working with him on a performance that would pay tribute to the French singer Barbara.

“Today, I can no longer sing Barbara because a woman who wanted to sing with me accused me of rape. I want to finally tell you my truth. I have never, ever abused a woman“, wrote the famous actor.

“Hurting a woman would be like kicking my own mother in the stomach“, he continued. “A woman came to my house for the first time, coming up to my room of her own accord. She says today that she was raped there. He came back a second time.

There was never any coercion, violence or protest between us. She wanted to sing Barbara’s songs with me in Cirque d’Hiver. I told her no… She filed a complaint».

Gerard Depardieu also responded to accusations of sexual misconduct on set. “I have often done what others would not dare to do: I have escaped the limits, I have “shaken up” certainties, I have gotten used to the set between two takes, between two tensions… to laugh,” he noted.

He added: “Not everyone laughed. If, in my attempt to live intensely in the present, I hurt, shocked someone, whoever it was, it was never in my intentions. Please forgive me for behaving like a child who wanted to have fun…,” wrote the famous actor.

Charlotte Arnould’s lawyer said she was shocked by Depardieu’s letter. “Mr. Depardieu says he’s telling his truth, but it’s certainly not Charlotte’s truth and it certainly won’t be what will be revealed in court,” she said.