Achraf Hakimi rape case: Inside the player's broken relationship with his wife

Paris Saint-Germain FC defender Achraf Hakimi stands accused of sexual assault, and now his wife, Spanish actress Hiba Abouk, has broken her silence about their relationship.

It may be remembered that the allegations against Hakimi came out in February, when a woman reported him for alleged rape to French authorities. The Moroccan player currently lives in the outskirts of Paris, close to the PSG facilities.

The footballer and his unnamed accuser reportedly met via social media in January, and had been communicating for several weeks before they agreed to meet. On the night in question, Hakimi sent an Uber to pick up the woman and take her to his home, where the alleged assault took place.

During this time, questions were asked about the whereabouts of Hakimi's wife and two young children. The 36-year-old actress was soon discovered to have been either in Dubai or in Madrid when the incident occurred. Now, she has confirmed that the reason why she was not in the family home in Paris at that time was because she and Hakimi had decided to separate.

The question of infidelity has been addressed

This clears up at least one question, meaning the footballer had not been cheating on his wife when he started speaking to his rape accuser. Of course, this does not prove that there was no previous infidelity on either side as the reasons behind the separation have not been disclosed by the former couple.

In any case, Abouk has now issued a public statement via Spanish publication El Pais, where she confirmed that she and the former Real Madrid player had decided to separate for quite some time before the rape allegations came to light.

Abouk breaks her silence through a statement

"The reality is that it was some time ago that, after thinking about it a lot, the father of my children [Hakimi] and I made the decision to end our relationship, long before the events in which I have been involved in the media and which I am totally oblivious," she said in her letter before sharing her reaction to the rape allegations.

"After making the decision to legally separate and stop living together, pending the divorce proceedings, who would have imagined that in addition to facing the well-known pain that a separation entails, and accepting the grief that the failure of a family project entails to whom I had given myself body and soul, I would have to face this ignominy," she said. Abouk then admitted that it took her more than a month to speak up because she "needed time to digest this shock."

The 36-year-old actress said that she felt "duty-bound" to make a public statement about her relationship with the footballer and to clarify all the speculations surrounding her family. She admitted that silence was an option and could have proven useful on some situations. However, in this case she felt an "urgent need" to explain herself.

By breaking her silence, the actress said that she will be able to resume her "personal, public and professional life in the least harmful and traumatic way possible." As expected, she emphasised that her priority is protecting her two young children with Hakimi.

The couple met in 2018 and were married in the summer of summer of 2019. They share two sons, Amin, three years old, and Naím, 13 months old. They had kept a residence in Madrid apart from their home in Paris where Hakimi's career had taken him.

The case is still ongoing, with Hakimi maintaining his innocence

The Prosecutor's Office of the French city of Nanterre officially opened the investigation against Hakimi on February 27, a few days since the woman first reported the alleged rape. The 24-year-old footballer has maintained his innocence and has even stated that he was "tricked" and "trapped" by the woman.

In her statement, Abouk left the matter to the authorities, saying that justice will prevail. However, she may have hinted that she is not fully behind the Morocco international when she said: "It goes without saying that in my life I have always been and will always be on the side of the victims".

Abouk then asked for privacy for herself and her children during this challenging time for their family.