PARIS (AP) — Gisèle Pelicot's brain froze as the French police officer revealed the unthinkable.
“Fifty-three men had come to our house to rape me,” she recalls him telling her.
Sharing details of the horror that until now had largely been reserved for French courts, Pelicot is publicly telling her story of survival and courage in her own words, in a book and her first series of interviews since a landmark trial in 2024 turned her into a global icon against sexual violence and imprisoned her husband who knocked her out with drugs so other men could assault her inert body.
Extracts of “A Hymn to Life, Shame Has to Change Sides," published Tuesday by French newspaper Le Monde, rewound to Nov. 2, 2020 — the day when her world fell apart.
Her then-husband, Dominique Pelicot, had been summoned by police for questioning after a supermarket security guard caught him secretly taking video up women’s skirts.
Gisèle accompanied him and was completely unprepared for the bombshell delivered by the officer, Laurent Perret. Gradually, and with care, he explained how the man she regarded as a loving husband and whom she described as “a super guy" had, in fact, made her the unwitting victim of his perversions.
“I am going to show you photos and videos that are not going to please you,” the officer said, words she recounts in the book.
The first showed a man raping a woman who had been laid out on her side and dressed up in a suspender belt.
“That's you in this photo,” the officer said.
He then showed her another photo, and another after that — drawn from a collection of images that Dominique Pelicot took of his wife over the years when he regularly knocked her unconscious by lacing her food and drink with drugs, so strangers he invited to their home could assault her while he filmed.
Gisèle Pelicot couldn't believe that the inert woman in the photos was her.
“I didn’t recognize the individuals. Nor this woman. Her cheek was so flabby. Her mouth so limp. She was a rag doll,” she writes in her book.
“My brain stopped working in the office of Deputy Police Sergeant Perret."
The shocking case and her courage in demanding that it be tried in open court spurred a national reckoning about the blight of rape culture. The harrowing trial ended in December 2024 with guilty verdicts for all 51 defendants.
Dominique Pelicot and 49 other men were convicted of rapes and sexual assaults over a period of nearly a decade. Another man was convicted of drugging and raping his own wife with Dominique Pelicot’s help.
Dominique Pelicot, found guilty on all charges, was given the maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison. The sentences ranged from three to 15 years imprisonment for the other convicted men. Only one of them subsequently appealed and saw his sentence for rape increased from nine to 10 years imprisonment.
In the book extracts published by Le Monde, Pelicot says that accepting the possibility of a closed-door trial would have protected her abusers and left her alone with them in court, “hostage to their looks, their lies, their cowardice and their scorn.”
“No one would know what they had done to me. Not a single journalist would be there to write their names next to their crimes,” she explains. “Above all, not a single woman could walk in and sit in the courtroom to feel less alone.”
The 73-year-old adds that had she been twenty years younger, "I might not have dared to refuse a closed-door hearing.”
“I would have feared the stares,” she writes. “Those damned stares a woman of my generation has always had to contend with, those damned stares that make you hesitate in the morning between trousers and a dress, that follow you or ignore you, flatter you and embarrass you. Those damned stares that are supposed to tell you who you are, what you’re worth, and then abandon you as you grow older.”
In an interview with Télérama magazine, Gisèle said her nearly 50-year marriage with Dominique Pelicot wasn't all built on lies and that her book “isn't the story of a woman who has only known pain.”
“I am an unconditional optimist,” she said. “Despite what I experienced and the fact that I am 73 years old, I am very much alive and I allow myself to be happy. One can make friends, and even fall in love again.”
FILE - Gisele Pelicot leaves the courthouse for a break during the appeals trial in the case of a man challenging his conviction, less than a year after the landmark verdict in a drugging and rape trial that shook France, on Oct. 9, 2025 in Nimes, southern France. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — More than 24 hours before the first shot flew at a Final Four that really feels like a five-team affair, Arizona already had a win.
The Wildcats kept their coach from bolting to that fifth team — North Carolina.
Tommy Lloyd dropped the news of the contract extension that will keep him in Tucson through 2031 at Friday's news conference in advance of a titanic matchup against Michigan.
The meandering coaching search at one of the country's most storied programs has shared headlines with Saturday night's much-anticipated national semifinal that happens to feature two of Carolina's reported coaching targets.
"We’ve been able to get some things done the past couple days," Lloyd said.
Like Lloyd, Michigan coach Dusty May has spent most of this tournament batting down speculation that he might be the replacement for Hubert Davis, who was fired after the Tar Heels blew a 19-point lead in a loss to VCU in the first round of the tournament last month.
Not surprisingly, May was asked about it again the day before the big game.
“Yeah, I love it at Michigan, but you’ll never hear me comment on any other job unless Michigan lets me go and then I’ll comment on every job,” he said.
It's no big surprise that these two coaches are among the hottest commodities in hoops. Just look at the teams they brought to Indy.
There are no fewer than nine potential NBA stars sprinkled across the two rosters, which is why the winner of this, the second of Saturday night's semifinals, will almost certainly be a favorite against the UConn-Illinois winner in the undercard.
“It's the Final Four for a reason. It's the best teams, the best four," Arizona freshman Brayden Burries said. "UConn, Illinois, they're great teams. If we do win Saturday, we know we have a great shot at it. But no, we're not thinking about that now.”
Depending on which mock draft you check, Arizona's top NBA pick will either be Koa Peat (14 points, 5.5 rebounds) or Burries, a 16-point-a-game, McDonalds All-American who is shooting 68% from 3 over the tournament.
It's a striking stat for a team that attempted the third-lowest percentage of 3s in the country, if only because of all the tall, lanky talent it has across the court.
“We're doubling down on what we're good at, and we're believing in Coach Lloyd," said Arizona guard Jaden Bradley, a senior who has spent three years in Tucson after transferring from Alabama. “I like to get in the paint and get fouled. And when teams take that away, we're capable from 3 and we can knock those down, as well.”
Michigan is a 1 1/2-point favorite, according to the BetMGM Sportsbook, in a matchup of the top two teams in the KenPom rankings.
Michigan's best — but hardly its only — NBA prospect is Yaxel Lendeborg, who has scored 25, 23 and 27 in three straight blowout wins in the tournament.
Lendeborg came to Michigan last offseason from UAB. He was part of a quick rebuild, the likes of which are made possible in the era of the rapid-fire transfer portal. The architect is May, who himself arrived in Ann Arbor two seasons ago, just a year removed from a Final Four appearance with Florida A&M.
Michigan's four top scorers — Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr., Aday Mara and Elliot Cadeau — played at different colleges last season.
May conceded to feeling some relief now that the transfer portal is considered a legit way to build a roster. Gone are the days of spending hundreds of hours recruiting high schoolers, only to learn that they've chosen someplace else.
“When I say we’re saving time, we don’t waste time with all the other things,” May said. “We still have to do our research. We still have the intel. We still have to spend an inordinate amount of time. We just don’t have to spend it the way we used to.”
As this Final Four is showing, it's not just the players whose every move is under a microscope.
“I didn’t want to make this entire Final Four about that because I’m just a small part of something much bigger,” Lloyd said of his contract extension. “But on that same note, I’d also like to let you know that North Carolina is an amazing place. I mean, it’s a one of one. It’s an honor to even be considered for that job.”
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
Arizona guard Brayden Burries smiles after a win over Purdue in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 28, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Kelley L Cox)
Michigan's Yaxel Lendeborg passes during practice ahead of an NCAA college basketball tournament semifinal game against Arizona at the Final Four, Friday, April 3, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Michigan head coach Dusty May watches during practice ahead of an NCAA college basketball tournament semifinal game against Arizona at the Final Four, Friday, April 3, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd watches during practice ahead of an NCAA college basketball tournament semifinal game against against Michigan at the Final Four, Friday, April 3, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
