Depardieu's family denounce 'conspiracy' against rape-charged actor
THE family of French film star Gérard Depardieu, charged with rape and facing scrutiny over fresh sexist remarks, said he is a “modest, even prudish man” in private as they denounced an “unprecedented conspiracy” against him.
The Oscar-nominated star of the 1990 film Cyrano de Bergerac was charged with rape in 2020 and has also faced 13 accusations of sexual harassment or assault.
Earlier this month, broadcaster France 2 showed the actor on a 2018 trip to North Korea repeatedly making explicit sexual comments in the presence of a female interpreter and sexualising a small girl riding a horse.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Culture minister Rima Abdul Malak said this week that the 74-year-old actor’s behaviour shames France, noting that he might also be stripped of the Legion of Honour, the country’s top award.
“Of course, we are often shocked by Gérard’s comments, but our father/grandfather/uncle is being the target of an unprecedented conspiracy,” several members of his family, including his daughter, actress Julie Depardieu, said in a letter published in France’s flagship Sunday newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche.
Deploring a “collective rage” against the actor, they said that “in private, with his children, he is an extremely modest, delicate and even prudish person!”
On Saturday, the film star’s lawyers told the AFP news agency that he was putting his Legion of Honour award at the disposal of the minister.
On Friday, the culture minister said that the Grand Chancery of the Legion of Honour would initiate a “disciplinary procedure” to decide whether to strip Depardieu of the honour.
Depardieu’s lawyers, Beatrice Geissmann Achille and Christian Saint-Palais, questioned whether it was part of the minisster’s role to participate “so actively in the manhunt” and “media lynching” to which they believed their client was being subjected.
On Saturday, a Belgian municipality stripped Depardieu of the title of honorary citizen, and earlier this week the Canadian province of Quebec revoked its top honour over his “scandalous” comments against women.
