French actor Emmanuelle Debever, who accused Gérard Depardieu of sexual assault, dies aged 60

14 December, 2023

NME News

French actor Emanuelle Debever, who was among the first to accuse Gérard Depardieu of sexual assault, has died in an apparent suicide aged 60.

As reported by French media outlet Libération on Thursday, Debever died on December 6 in hospital after she was found in the River Seine in Paris. Earlier reports suggested she had died on December 7, but this was later corrected by Debever’s sister on Instagram.

The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation to “research the circumstances that could have led” to the actor’s death.

Debever starred in a number of French films throughout the 1980s, including 1983’s Danton opposite Depardieu. Her other credits include A Brutal Game and Long Live Social.

In a Facebook post in 2019, Debever accused Depardieu of trying to grope her while filming Danton in 1982.

Gerard Depardieu CREDIT: Tristar Media/Getty Images

“This monster allowed himself to enjoy plenty during filming, making the most of the intimacy inside a carriage,” she wrote in the post. “Sliding his fat paw under my skirt to, in his words, ‘make me feel better’… I didn’t allow it to happen.”

This allegation was part of a documentary titled Gérard Depardieu: The Fall Of The Ogre, which was broadcast on TV channel France 2 on December 7. The film featured several other allegations, including an interview with actor Hélène Darras, who filed a complaint against Depardieu accusing him of sexual assault on the set of 2007 film Disco.

In 2020, Depardieu was charged with rape and sexual assault after actor Charlotte Arnould alleged he had raped her in 2018. He denied the charges, with the case currently working its way through the courts.

In April this year, an investigation by French outlet Mediapart saw 13 women make sexual violence allegations against Depardieu.

Depardieu later denied all the allegations against him in an open letter published in French newspaper, Le Figaro, in October 2023. In the letter, he wrote: “Never, ever have I abused a woman. To the media court, to the lynching that has been reserved for me, I have only my word to defend myself.”