A French investigating judge has ordered actor Gerard Depardieu to stand trial on charges of raping and sexually assaulting actor Charlotte Arnould in 2018, sources close to the case confirmed on Tuesday.
Depardieu, 76, already received an 18-month suspended sentence in May for sexually assaulting two women on a film set in 2021. The conviction added to mounting allegations that have overshadowed the career of one of France’s most celebrated actors.
Arnould, who filed her complaint in 2018, welcomed the ruling: “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 order marked “a form of judicial truth” for Arnould as she awaits trial.
Prosecutors allege that Depardieu raped and sexually assaulted Arnould twice at his Paris home in August 2018. The case was initially dismissed for lack of evidence but was reopened after Arnould filed as a civil party in 2020.
Depardieu, who has appeared in more than 200 films, denies wrongdoing, insisting his relationship with Arnould was consensual. “Never, ever, have I abused a woman,” he wrote in a 2023 letter to Le Figaro.
The actor has been accused of misconduct by more than a dozen women in recent years, making him the most prominent French figure implicated in the country’s #MeToo reckoning.
The date of the trial has not yet been set.
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