French actor Gerard Depardieu wrote in an open letter on Monday that he is “neither a rapist, nor a predator,” addressing the 2018 lawsuit against him for the sexual assault and rape of a 22-year-old actress. It also comes in the wake of the 13 women who came forward in 2023 accusing him of sexual assault and harassment.
“I have never, ever abused a woman,” Depardieu wrote in a letter published in the French newspaper Le Figaro on Monday. “Hurting a woman would be like kicking my own mother in the stomach.”
The letter also addressed Charlotte Arnould’s 2018 lawsuit against him, though Depardieu did not mention Arnould by name.