“My Mother Isn’t an Icon to Me”: Caroline Darian Speaks After Gisèle Pelicot Trial

Caroline Darian, daughter of Gisèle Pelicot, has broken her silence after France’s largest rape trial, revealing that she no longer speaks to her mother. Despite standing by her side through the proceedings, Darian now describes feeling abandoned. “My mother isn’t an icon, not to me,” she said, laying bare the painful estrangement between them.

Dominique Pelicot’s crimes shocked the world. In December 2024, authorities sentenced him to 20 years for drugging and raping Gisèle,his wife over nine years, from 2011 to 2020, while inviting over 50 strangers, recruited online, to assault her. He filmed hundreds of these attacks, storing them on a hard drive labeled "abuse." His 50 co-defendants received a combined 400+ years in prison for rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.

But Darian’s pain runs deeper. Police recovered deleted photos from Dominique’s computer showing her unconscious, wearing unfamiliar underwear, in a folder chillingly titled "My Daughter Naked." She accuses her father of drugging her, pointing to years of unexplained gynaecological issues, like a persistent vaginal tear.

While the world focused on Gisèle’s survival story, her daughter’s voice was often overlooked. During the trial, Caroline Darian declared in court, “I am the forgotten victim in this case.” She also filed a complaint accusing her father of abusing her as a child. But the deepest wound, she says, came from her mother’s reaction. When she revealed her own trauma, Gisèle allegedly dismissed her with the words, “Stop making a spectacle of yourself”.

Darian further claims that her mother went even further in denial, once telling her, “Your father is incapable of such a thing.” In court, when Darian’s husband testified that photographs from the abuse suggested drugging, Dominique flatly denied involvement, leaving her in what she described as “mental torture.”

According to Darian, Gisèle’s refusal to press for answers only widened the emotional gulf between them. Criticizing her mother’s decision to move on with a new companion, Jean-Loup, Darian remarked bitterly, “You stay a mother until you die.”

Instead of retreating, Caroline has channelled her pain into activism. She published a memoir, I’ll Never Call Him Dad Again, and launched the campaign #MendorsPas (“Don’t Put Me Under”), which fights for survivors of chemical-facilitated sexual assault. At the Hay Festival earlier this year, she also argued that online pornography played a role in shaping her father’s crimes, urging society to address the cultural roots of misogyny.

(Rh/Eth/VK/MSM)