Last year, Gisèle Pelicot became internationally recognized for her extraordinary courage in confronting and exposing a horrific case of prolonged sexual abuse by her husband, Dominique Pelicot.
And now her daughter, Caroline Darian, wants to turn her family’s pain into power.
Darian has become a prominent advocate for sexual assault survivors, speaking publicly about the trial and her own alleged abuse at the hands of her father.
She is out with a new book in the U.S. titled, “I’ll Never Call Him Dad Again: Turning Our Family Trauma of Sexual Assault and Chemical Submission into a Collective Fight.”
In the book, she chronicles the painful journey her entire family has been through, and details her mother’s unwavering courage in facing the very worst.
“My purpose is really to drive awareness about what is chemical submission,” Darian told “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski. “Because without chemical submission, my mom would have never been raped 200 times. You have to talk. You have to stand out. Because most of the time victims do not have enough evidence for being recognized as a victim. They need to be heard, believed, listened and supported.”
In December, Dominique Pelicot — and more than 50 other men — were found guilty of raping, drugging and assaulting Gisèle Pelicot over the course of nearly a decade.
Authorities discovered Dominique Pelicot drugged his wife before handing her over in a state of unconsciousness to dozens of men — allowing them to rape or sexually assault her. Dominique Pelicot did not ask for money from the men — his only condition was that he could film it all.
In a ground-breaking move, Gisèle Pelicot waived her right to anonymity and insisted on a public trial, wanting to demonstrate to sexual assault victims that shame does not belong to them — but rather their abusers.
The trial resulted in Dominique Pelicot receiving a 20-year prison sentence with more than 50 other men also convicted and sentenced to terms ranging from three to 15 years.
Darian has since set up her own campaign, #MendorsPas: Stop Chemical Submission: Don’t Put Me Under, to address the issue of chemical submission in the home. In March 2025, Darian filed a legal complaint against her father accusing him of drugging her and sexually abusing her as well. On a hard drive, police discovered two photos of his daughter, in which Darian said she is clearly unconscious, sleeping in an unfamiliar position and wearing underwear she didn’t recognize. Dominique Pelicot has offered conflicting explanations for the photos, but has always denied sexually assaulting his daughter. Darian has maintained the photos are proof her father also drugged and raped her and has previously said she felt she was the trial’s “forgotten victim.” “The worst is not really behind us because we still need to recover and go beyond that terrible story, which is going to be part us until the end,” Darian told Brzezinski. “…When it comes to me, I’m fighting. I’m trying to go beyond but it’s still really painful.”
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