The Queen has told the French rape survivor Gis\u00e8le Pelicot that she was left \u201cshocked\u201d and \u201cspeechless\u201d by her memoir.<\/p>\n
During a 30-minute meeting over tea on Monday at Clarence House, Camilla said that she had read Pelicot\u2019s book, A Hymn to Life: Shame has to Change Sides, in two days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI read it in the last two days, I couldn\u2019t put it down,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve met so many survivors of rape and sexual abuse I never thought I could be shocked by anything any more, but I was shocked at your case \u2014 it left me speechless.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a book launch was held at Royal Festival Hall in London on Friday, readings were given by the actresses Kate Winslet, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliet Stevenson.<\/p>\n
The Queen, who has long campaigned against domestic violence and sexual abuse, had written to Pelicot to praise her \u201cextraordinary dignity and courage\u201d after Pelicot waived her right to anonymity about a decade of abuse she had been subjected to by her husband and scores of other men. <\/p>\n
Pelicot, 73, said the shame should fall on her abusers rather than on her.<\/p>\n
Pelicot\u2019s husband, Dominique, from whom she has now divorced, was jailed for 20 years for drugging and raping her and allowing other men to rape her while she was unconscious.<\/p>\n
The memoir charts Pelicot\u2019s ordeal, which resulted in a three-and-a-half month trial in Avignon, France<\/a>, at which 50 men were found guilty in December 2024 of rape and sexual offences.<\/p>\n After the court case, the Queen wrote to Pelicot and said: \u201cI very much wanted to write to express my heartfelt admiration for the courage, grace and dignity with which you have faced the horrific crimes committed against you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 \u2018I saw him rape me. My body tortured, cast unconscious into the pit of men\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Pelicot told the BBC this month: \u201cIt was an honour for me to receive this letter, I wasn\u2019t expecting it at all. I was overwhelmed that the Queen could send me this letter. Although my words touched the whole world, I wasn\u2019t expecting a letter from the court of England.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt moved and very honoured that she had become aware of what had happened to me. I am grateful to her.\u201d<\/p>\n Camilla has said in the past that she was attacked by a man on a train<\/a> when she was a teenager. Through her charity work she has sought to raise awareness of sexual violence. In an ITV documentary last year, she said that she would \u201ckeep trying\u201d to end domestic violence until she was \u201cable to no more\u201d.<\/p>\n The meeting at Camilla\u2019s residence in London was held after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor<\/a> was arrested last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office.<\/p>\n The King\u2019s brother was held him in custody for 11 hours after documents published by the US Department of Justice revealed the extent of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, the convicted paedophile who was found dead in a New York jail cell in 2019.<\/p>\n In October, when Andrew was stripped of his royal titles, a Palace spokesman said: \u201cTheir Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n In February 2022, Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement in a civil case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein who alleged that she had been trafficked to have sex with Andrew when she was 17.<\/p>\n