![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/skynews-queen-camilla-gisele-pelicot_7173095.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Queen has met French rape survivor, Gisele Pelicot, and told her she was left “speechless” by the account of her ordeal in her new memoir.\n<\/p>\n
Ms Pelicot was drugged and raped by her ex-husband, who also allowed strangers to rape her while she was unconscious for almost a decade.<\/p>\n
The Palace said in a statement on Monday that the pair met at Clarence House, the official home of the King and Queen, while repairs are made to Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n
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Image:
\n The pair spoke through an interpreter. Pic: PA<\/p>\n
The Frenchwoman’s book, titled Hymn To Life: Shame Has To Change Sides, was launched at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Friday, with readings given by Hollywood actresses Kate Winslet, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliet Stevenson.<\/p>\n
She has been touring the UK promoting it.<\/p>\n
The Queen<\/a> wrote to the 73-year-old last year to praise her “extraordinary dignity and courage” in a letter the survivor said left her “overwhelmed” and which is now framed in her office.<\/p>\n When the two women spoke for 30 minutes over tea at Clarence House, Camilla said about the memoir: “I read it in the last two days, I couldn’t put it down.<\/p>\n “I’ve met so many survivors of rape and sexual abuse I never thought I could be shocked by anything anymore, but I was shocked at your case – it left me speechless.”<\/p>\n Ms Pelicot was joined by her partner, Jean-Loup Agopian and her literary and legal team and she talked to the Queen through an interpreter.<\/p>\n Camilla began speaking in French, joking that she had studied the language “60 years ago” but had “forgotten” it all.<\/p>\n During the informal chat, Ms Pelicot talked about receiving “incredible strength” from people, and in response, the Queen told her she had “so much support”.<\/p>\n Camilla mentioned the standing ovations the survivor received from audiences.<\/p>\n Read more on Sky News: Ms Pelicot received worldwide acclaim for her courage in waiving her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse. She had said the shame should fall on her abusers.<\/p>\n Her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot was jailed for 20 years after a three-and-a-half-month trial in Avignon, which ended in December 2024.<\/p>\n Fifty men were found guilty of rape or sexual offences, receiving sentences ranging from three to 15 years.<\/p>\n This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.<\/p>\n Please refresh the page for the fullest version.<\/p>\n You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app<\/a>. You can also follow us on WhatsApp<\/a> and subscribe to our YouTube channel<\/a> to keep up with the latest news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Queen has met French rape survivor, Gisele Pelicot, and told her she was left “speechless” by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-143017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
From mass rape survivor to feminist icon<\/a><\/p>\n