The French singer and actor Patrick Bruel, the subject of multiple rape allegations, protested his innocence on Sunday and said he would not step away from his work.<\/p>\n
The Paris prosecutor\u2019s office announced earlier on Sunday that Bruel was the subject of at least four complaints of sexual assault in France<\/a>, and that the cases would be investigated together.<\/p>\n \u201cI have never forced a woman,\u201d Bruel wrote in a statement shared on his Instagram page<\/a>. \u201cAnd if I have hurt anyone, I sincerely regret it.\u201d<\/p>\n Bruel, who has had a string of top-selling albums and appeared in more than 40 films, also faces a separate investigation in Belgium<\/a> after a complaint about an alleged sexual assault in Brussels was filed in March.<\/p>\n The 67-year-old, who is acting in a play in Paris, is scheduled to begin a concert tour on 16 June that will take him around France, as well as to Switzerland, Belgium and Canada.<\/p>\n A petition is circulating, backed by feminist groups, calling for the concerts to be cancelled.<\/p>\n But Bruel insisted on Sunday he would \u201ccontinue to do my job, with the same dedication and the same passion\u201d.<\/p>\n Since March the French investigative news website Mediapart has published allegations from women<\/a> who have accused Bruel of sexual harassment and sexual assault.<\/p>\n Bruel\u2019s statement on Sunday addressed allegations made in Mediapart by the television presenter Flavie Flament.<\/p>\n On Sunday Bruel said their relationship was \u201cneither violent, nor coercive, nor underhanded\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI have never used my fame to abuse anyone or obtain non-consensual relationships,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI understand that our age difference might raise eyebrows today. I also understand that fame or status can skew a romantic relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cFor weeks, several voices have been calling for my public condemnation, without a trial, as if the sheer number of accusations were enough to establish the truth. It will be up to the justice system, in which I have complete faith, to shed light on these accusations; it has done so before. I will fight before it to defend the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n Bruel\u2019s lawyer, Christophe Ingrain, previously told Agence France-Presse that courts had already ruled on some of the allegations made against his client. These include accusations of sexual harassment and assault by two massage therapists in 2019. A preliminary investigation was closed<\/a> due to lack of evidence.<\/p>\n The star is the latest in a string of French movie and music celebrities to face sexual assault claims. Last year the film legend G\u00e9rard Depardieu was found guilty <\/a>of sexually assaulting two women during a film shoot in 2021 and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence. His appeal will be heard in November.<\/p>\n