Who Is Caroline Darian? Gisele Pelicot's Daughter Speaks Out About Abuse by Father After His Conviction

In December 2024, Dominique Pelicot was found guilty of drugging and repeatedly raping his wife, Gisele, over a decade while also inviting other men to partake in the abuse. He was sentenced to 20 years of prison time by a French court. Now, two months after his conviction, Dominique and Gisele's daughter, Caroline Darian, has come forward with the account of abuse she faced at the hands of her father.

When reported for the first time, the case of Gisele Pelicot shook the world to its core, but in France, it sent tremors from which the nation is still coping. However, more than the world, it was Gisele and her children who had to deal with the arrest and the public trial of a sex offender who was also their father.

Especially for Caroline, who had to learn that her father allegedly took her half-naked pictures when she was unconscious and stored these images in a secret file on his laptop. In a new complaint, she accused Dominique of drugging and sexually assaulting her when she was young, a claim denied by her father.

Whether it was her mother's or her own case, Caroline's life had changed forever. But who was she before her father's arrest?

The Discovery That Shattered a Family

In her new memoir, I'll Never Call Him Dad Again, Caroline shares some vulnerable and intimate truths about her journey during her mother's trial and father's arrest. However, before Dominique Pelicot was taken into custody, Caroline was living a typical life. She had a job in communications, a husband working on a TV breakfast show, and a six-year-old son. Caroline lived in the suburbs of Paris, and she often spent peaceful summer days in her parents' house in the village of Mazan in Provence.

But everything changed in November 2020. Caroline received a phone call from her mother that left her in shock. It was then that she learned her father had been arrested for a series of criminal activities, including the drugging and rape of her mother, Gisele.

According to Caroline, that moment was a turning point in her life. 'I lost a part of me. Something died inside me that day,' she told ABC during an interview.

The Trial and Its Impact on Caroline

As the trial began, it was revealed that Dominique was involved in more than just sexually abusing her wife. It was discovered that he had allowed other men to sexually assault Gisele while she was unconscious.

During their investigation, the police also found intimate photographs of Caroline taken without her consent, raising questions about her own victimisation, which has now led her to file a separate case. 'I know he drugged me. He probably touched me. He probably raped me,' Caroline shared.

However, due to a lack of clear evidence, no formal charges have been pressed against her father.

A Once Strong Mother-Daughter Bond Now Stands Divided

Caroline, who once stood hand in hand with her mother, Gisele, has experienced a breaking point in their relationship. According to Caroline, when she spoke about her abuse to her mother, she did not support her claim. During the trial, when Gisele was asked about the accusations made by her daughter against Dominique, she declined to answer.

'Her silence says a lot,' Caroline says in her another book So That We May Remember. 'I am hit by this implacable reality in the face: my mother does not want to believe me or to hear me. The pain runs right through me. I have spent four years trying to be there for my mother, cherishing the bond that counted so much for me. I feel alone, facing a wall of desolation, and no one seems to understand.'

In her memoir, Caroline also revealed another reason behind the fallout between her and her mother. She shared that despite being in prison, her father exercised control over her mother. 'I think Dominique succeeded in splitting our tears in two,' she said, explaining how she discovered letters from her father sent to her mother from jail and how Gisele made a 'bag of warm clothes and personal items to be dropped off at the prison.'

'I learned all this with disbelief,' she wrote in her memoir.

Caroline's Father Used To Be Her Confidante

Caroline describes her childhood as a happy one, with its share of ups and downs, but as far as her relationship with Dominique goes, they were close. 'We had a normal life, and we were a united family. My father was perceived as a good guy. Two faces co-existed together,' Caroline said.

While growing up, Caroline had a precious bond with her father. 'He was my confidante. He gave me a lot of things when I was a child. He was there for me. He [taught] me to swim, to cycle. He was there to encourage me during my studies. So we had a close relationship, like daughter and father,' she shared. 'Now, I don't have a father anymore. He is alive, but he is dead for me.'

Caroline, with her lawsuit, seeks justice in a legal system which doesn't believe her because of the lack of evidence. 'My brothers believe me, my husband believes me, my friends, but the justice [system] doesn't believe me now because there's not enough evidence,' she said. 'There are some serious facts which weren't really investigated. I want to see the truth and I will have the truth.'