Begin Again with Davina McCall - Gisèle Pelicot: My Life Before The World Knew My Name | Pt. 1

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

Gisèle Pelicot became known around the world when she waived her right to anonymity in the sexual assault trial that shocked France and beyond. But before the headlines, before the courtroom, and before the world knew her name, Gisèle had a life, a family, a marriage, and a story of her own. This is Part 1 of Gisèle Pelicot’s story on Begin Again. In this episode, Gisèle joins Davina to talk about her life before the case became public. She reflects on falling in love as a teenager, building a family, becoming a mother, and the life she believed she was living with the man she had trusted for decades. Gisèle speaks with extraordinary dignity about the moment her life began to change, the questions she had no answers for, and the painful process of discovering what had happened to her. She reflects on the moments she could not explain at the time, the questions that went unanswered, and the devastating betrayal of discovering what had happened to her. Davina and Gisèle also discuss why so many victims struggle to speak, and why shame should never belong to the person who has been harmed. This conversation ends as Davina asks Gisèle what it felt like for people not to believe her. That question, and everything that followed, continues in Part 2 of Gisèle’s story. 🌟 Follow for more honest conversations about identity, growth, and beginning again and to stay connected with new episodes of Begin Again. Follow us here: 📸 www.instagram.com/beginagain 🎥 https://www.tiktok.com/@beginagainpod Buy ‘A Hymn to Life’ here: Hardback: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hymn-Life-Shame-Change-Sides/dp/184792896X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.pKtWbZhPB1Me57eLekSRlRNTiKNoYduQoXz3CqbwwvY.6BNLixMym6UnLPYhwlSkqOF7fhXDf1AKLW_mmcGaeSM&qid=1781522906&sr=8-1 Audiobook (read by Emma Thompson): https://open.spotify.com/show/1Gy9pylmMgYWm6zOvcvv6Y?si=d3f1f19009134671 ✨Sign up for the Begin Again newsletter for all your behind the scenes access, recommendations and much much more at: https://linkly.link/2g2xm (00:00) Intro(00:01) Do Health Ad(01:11) Why Gisèle Pelicot’s Story Matters(01:55) What Beginning Again Means To Gisèle(03:02) Meeting Dominique Pelicot At 19(04:30) Gisèle’s Life Before The World Knew Her Name(05:33) When The Abuse Began(06:29) The First Time Gisèle Questioned Him(08:26) How Gisèle Discovered The Truth(10:33) Seeing The Photos For The First Time(12:46) How The Drugging Was Uncovered(13:51) Chemical Submission, Shame & Speaking Out Sponsored by: Do Health - The waitlist is open. Begin Again listeners get fixed early access pricing when they sign up today at dohealth.co/beginagain use code BEGINAGAIN Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I've partnered with Do Health for this episode, and I want to tell you why. 46% of Do Health members showed signs of hidden cardiovascular risk after doing their blood test. 46%. And you know what? They had absolutely no idea. No symptoms. No big dramatic warning. And look, I get why people put this stuff off because results can feel really scary.

You know, you think, what if I find out something I can't? Oh, no. But finding things early can change everything. and that's what's great about what Dr. Rangan has done with Do Health. This app gives you something clear enough to question, understand and then act on. It checks your blood three times a year, including lots of things many of us have never even been tested for, and then it explains what your body is telling you clearly and calmly, and then gives you a weekly plan with an in-app coach so you know what to do next.

Not more worry, it's a way forward. Go to dohealth.com slash begin again and use code begin again to lock in early access pricing. Chiselle Pelico became known publicly in 2024 when she waived her right to anonymity in the sexual assault case that shocked France and the world to the core. Today she joins me to share her story what it means to be betrayed by the person you trusted most.

Why she chose to speak publicly and how she found strength even in the darkest chapter of her life and how she began again. This episode does include details of Chazelle's case, parts of which may be difficult for some of you. So please watch with care. This conversation was recorded in both French and English. On YouTube, you can choose how to watch using the language options below. This is part one of her story. Madame Pelleco, merci beaucoup, to come here at my podcast,

begin again. I'm now going to speak in English. I would love to explain to you the reason that I started this podcast. And it was basically to help people live a life that facilitated a happy death. So to get your life in order so that you can die happy. And I can't think of a of somebody who embodies a journey that will help people do that more than you. So thank you so much for coming to share your journey with us and how you have begun again. And I'm so grateful to you for being here. My first question is about Monsieur Pellico and how your love affair started. Well, our love affair began. We were 19 years old. We were a couple of kids because 19 at the time was very young in the 70s. He was an electrician for my cousins who had taken over his father's business. And then we fell in love. I think we just fell madly in love. And we started to talk together. And then I realized that in his personal life, he wasn't terribly happy. He had a tyrannical authoritarian father. I'd have to talk together. I'd have to talk together. I'd have to talk together. I'd have. He'd have.

had a tough adolescence. I lost my mother when I was very young. My father remarried. My stepmother wasn't particularly nice. So we fell in love and we thought we'd save one another. That's what was interesting to realize that we really believed in it and we really wanted to build together. We got married in April 73. Everything seemed to go very well. We set up with very little, but we were so happy. You know Shalana's a song, Love, O M. It was really important. like that. We loved one another. We were happy and had David in 74, so we carried on being happy. There were no shadows and it was very surprising when you know the end of the story. I didn't see the perverted man. I didn't see this man who was manipulative. I didn't see any of that.

And I don't think he was like that at the time. I think he was really sincere. We really loved one another. And then in 86, things were going. well, but there were slight concerns as far as his professional path. Luckily, I had a job where I was earning pretty well. So I was really the main breadwinner, but then he started selling, but I felt it was chaotic. I felt that he was more fragile than me, and I felt that I was really leading things, but I didn't let him feel that. I try to establish harmony for everything to go well between us.

And that's what happened. I always had the positive side in my life. He always saw the glass being half empty and I saw it being half full. And I feel that he had a negative side. I always tried to encourage him. And maybe there was, how can I say it, not this depression within him

because you can't say it was depression, but he just didn't feel right. In other words, he wasn't able to. to obtain what he wanted in his professional life. So, Monsieur Pellicoe started to drug and rape you in 2011. Can you tell me what was your life with him and your family like at that time? Everything seemed to go well. Of course we did have chaotic moments.

He had health problems, financial problems. We had couple problems. But I felt that we'd overcome all that. I felt that we'd got out of it even stronger. but of course he already had that perversion within him that I'd never seen and nobody ever saw it at neither our friends or our children how could you imagine something that's unthinkable you can't imagine that the man with whom you share your life for so many years

is capable of chemically drugging you it was impossible I think he was able to hide it all he knew exactly how to operate and it was a kind of manipulation you have to be very intelligent to do everything he did. It's difficult to comprehend how a man can be so unbelievably manipulative and my heart breaks for you because you loved him and trusted him so much that you felt guilty about accusing him of something that he was actually doing. Can you tell me about that night? Yes, one morning I was getting ready for the day. and I was getting dressed and I put the trousers on that I had worn the night before.

I saw there were some strange stains and I tried to think what had I done the night before and I had no recollection and then I started asking myself questions because I have a very good memory. I always remember what I had to do 10 days before and I thought that was strange. He was in the garden just working in the garden and I said to him, well I just said Dumé, because that was his nickname, Dume, you're not driving me, are you? And I don't know why I said that at that moment.

Was my brain unconsciously alerting me? But I don't have the answer to that question. And then he had a really surrealistic reaction. He said, can you imagine what you're saying to me? That's really not possible. And he started crying, and I could see in his tears, tears of my father when my mother was dying. I realized that he was wounded, I was harming him, hurting him.

And I said, I don't know why I said that. Please forgive me. So I felt culpable for having said that to him when, in fact, I was actually really discovering precisely what was going on. That was the truth. But I didn't know it at that point. Discovering, no, possibly it was unconscious at that moment. And we don't talk about it again. I ask forgiveness and we don't talk about it again.

did the story of him being accosted at the supermarket for taking the photographs up women's skirts? When did you find out about that? At the time when he admitted to me that he was caught in the supermarket, he had to tell me the truth because the sub-lieutenant Perre was going to call me, so he didn't have a choice. In 2010, he had the same kind of behavior, but I was never informed that in fact he was caught in the supermarket in Seneimard. And he had a fine of 100 euros, but nobody warned me about that particular story. And we lost 10 years.

Absolutely. I only was going to learn in January, 2020, the fact that there was this fine of 100 euros, and they took his DNA. But I was not informed of anything. Can you imagine if 2020, Soule d'Hen-Pered, had the same reaction? I'm sure that I wouldn't be here in front of you today, witnessing. They could have just said, oh, well, he's a man who's 68, his wife isn't there, let's drop it. They decided, no, let's just go and find out.

And that's where they saw all the computer equipment. And it took time for them to find the proof on his laptop, on his phone. And I learned that 2nd of November 2020 because I was called in October. I was with my children because I was a platform. after my grandchildren. They said, Mr. Pellicoe, has Mr. Pidicou told you what happened in Carpentra? And I said, yes. And I said to them, look, I don't know

what happened in his head, because after all, he's never behaved in that way before. I don't understand it. So they said, okay, are you free on the 2nd of November and please come with your husband? And I said, of course, and I can come even before. But they hadn't finished investigating. They said, no, come

on the 2nd of November with your husband. And on the 2nd of November, I was discovered precisely what had happened. And for me, That was really a total tsunami in my head, a deflagration. I didn't realize. It's only at that moment that I really was starting to realize. It was appalling. Madame Petti-Coi, I read about your childhood and your upbringing,

and it seemed happy, even though you had that terrible tragedy with your mother dying so young. You had a family life. It was normal. But I feel. like you were so unprepared emotionally for that moment at the police station when they called you into that room alone. Do you mind, I know you've done this so many times, but just describing the feeling when you saw the first photograph, what went through your mind, your heart, your body when you saw that?

I was only able to look at three photographs and I couldn't go any further, because I wasn't recognizing myself on the photographs, but sub-rudent Peres said, look, I'm going to show you things that are not going to make you happy, and so I wasn't able to talk anymore, and my mouth became very dry, I asked for a grass of water.

I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't imagine what they're going to reveal. And when I saw the first photograph, I saw a man next to me, and I thought I don't know that man, and I don't recognize that woman at all, because she was so disguised, I saw a woman who was almost dead in her bed and disguised.

They weren't my underwear, you know, with suspenders, which I don't wear. And I said, no, that's not me on the second photograph. I carry on saying, no, that's not me. I don't know this man. And then the sub-tent of the people who said, look, we, in fact carried out an investigation. There, it's your room. It's there, your bedside tables. And I think my brain kind of stopped.

I disassociated. And it was too much for me. And it took me time. It took me a lot of time to realize, and it took me five or six hours because when I went home, they accompanied me and they asked me to call a friend because they didn't want me to stay on my own. Because after all, there are 53 individuals who hadn't yet been arrested, and they said to me, you're in danger at home. You mustn't stay on your own. The friend came, and in fact, they took my hair, samples of my hair, and they took some more samples of my hair to really check, and then they could see all the drugs that were in my hair. and they particularly asked me when I went home, everything was messed up.

I couldn't even recognize my house because, in fact, they'd searched to try to find the medication. And they didn't find the medication. And they said, look, try to find the drugs, but it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. And I didn't know where he'd hidden. So I searched in the house in our cupboard where we kept pharmacy products. And the next day, once again, he was in fact in custody. And there he admitted where he'd hidden the medication. and of course I would never have found it myself

because it was hidden in fact in a garage, in a tennis sock and there one could find the boxes of Temistat with a renewable prescription and there was a little bottle of I can't remember what it was it was just to make my body relax and so they discovered his whole stratagem and he'd actually orchestrated everything

and it really does make you freeze up. I mean, just think that I spent all these days, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He had no pity. He had no compassion. Knowing that I had these moments of absence, which were regular, I consulted neurologists who didn't understand anything. They thought I was just anxious, who thought possibly I had the beginning of Alzheimer's.

And so really it went under the radars. Why? Because they weren't trained. You can't possibly envisage the woman who's accompanied by her husband. has been drugged by him, it's impossible because after all, drugs are in nightclubs, in a bar, but not in the family home. No, no.

And really, it's a tool of violence, and it absolutely has to be unveiled. In the morning, I used to wake up. There were some symptoms. I had gynecological problems. I had these absences, and I thought that it was my mother's illness, possibly that was also going through.

But that's what's complicated to save the court. I mean, I saw the women, as for the defense say, oh, but madam, how come you didn't realize anything with your body was talking? Yes, it was talking, but there was no explanation because the medical court didn't discover anything. I saw my daughter's gynecologist, and before Christmas I had a problem, and my daughter took me to a gynaecologist, and she carried out a scan of my ovaries, and he said, no, you've got nothing, you've just got a slight infection on your uterus, and I'll give you some medication.

but in fact afterwards I had in fact four STDs and at that point I had to have some very strong medication and you've got to alert you've got to denounce because after all I don't want other women to undergo what I live through they must always go and consult and they've got to dare talk they've got to dare denounce because often people feel shame and so you keep to silence and you don't want to unveil who you are because it's shame that is carried by the victim,

but it shouldn't be that way around at all. It's got to be the other way around, and they've got to have a courage to realize that they're not capable of anything. Those victims must not feel culpable, they've got to be able to speak because then, in that way, they can, in fact, repair themselves. Any woman that has been raped

using these drugs that make you completely blackout will be so grateful to you for explaining publicly what that is like, so thank you. Me? You have done a very brave thing. I would like to come back to you talking about to the lawyers and to in the court about not knowing anything that happened to you. And how insulting it is when you've been through something like that for people to not believe you.

What was it like to have people to have people? not believe you.