Gisèle Pelicot has described the moment she fell in love and was able to trust again after her rape ordeal orchestrated by her former husband in France.

Pelicot, 73, waived her right to anonymity during the trial of Dominique Pelicot, who was jailed for 20 years in 2024 for drugging and raping her and allowing other men to sexually assault her while she was unconscious, over almost a decade.

Speaking at the Hay festival in Wales on Saturday, she said she never thought she could trust a man again before meeting her partner, Jean-Loup Agopian.

The campaigner said: “It’s something that I didn’t think could happen, especially at my age, first of all, I didn’t really want to fall in love, but life decided otherwise.

“We met, our trajectories crossed at one moment and I met this young man of 73… You see, you can fall in love at any age, it happened to me, it can happen to you, I’m convinced of it.

“I didn’t think that I’d be able to trust a man, but it’s what happened to me, so you see that everything can be allowed in life, you must never despair.”

Pelicot appeared at the festival to discuss her memoir A Hymn to Life and was interviewed on stage by Lady Kennedy.

She said that “society has got to wake up” on the issue of violence against women, and that it’s an “appalling evil that touches all borders”.

“I thought that my story only related to me, but I realised that, in fact, it was really the tree that hid the forest,” she continued.

Yet, she feels “serene” about the future for women, because “I think that we can all live together in harmony, men and women, and I think it’s a question of educating our children very young”.

“Maybe I’m a very optimistic person by nature, but I would hope that the human being will go towards peace and love.”

Last month, French authorities launched an investigation into the reappearance of a website Dominique Pelicot used to recruit dozens of strangers to rape his wife in their home between 2011 and 2020. Authorities said the French-language platform Coco has been linked to crimes, including the sexual abuse of children, rape and murder. The website, which was registered abroad, was shut down in June 2024.

Pelicot described it as an “absolute miracle” to be speaking on stage, because “the way in which [Dominique] sedated me, he sedated me so strongly, I’m wondering how my heart and my body was able to hold for so long”.

When Pelicot was being unknowingly drugged, people around her wondered whether she was drunk or unwell. “My children and my friends were very worried for me, because very often when I was on the phone with them, I often repeated the same things, but I don’t remember that at all.”

Pelicot described taking years to decide to waive her right to anonymity. When her decision was announced in court in front of the 51 men who were ultimately declared guilty of rape and their lawyers, she realised they were going to “make me pay for it very dearly, and that’s what happened, they really tried to humiliate me”.

Pelicot’s daughter, Caroline Darian, is also pursuing legal action against Dominique Pelicot. Among the images in his possession were two photos of his daughter in which she is unconscious on a bed wearing underwear that is not her own. Pelicot said she believed there had been “an incestuous attitude towards his daughter that was intolerable”.

She said Darian “didn’t find justice” during Pelicot’s case, and that she hopes her daughter will win her own case, in order to “rebuild herself”.

Pelicot also praised Darian’s advocacy group M’endors pas, which campaigns against chemical submission. She invited her onstage, and said that she was “really proud” to be her mother.

• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html