Patrick Bruel Sebastien Courdji/Getty Images French actor and singer Patrick Bruel appeared before investigating judges in Paris on Wednesday for questioning related to alleged acts of rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment involving nine victims, committed between 2010 and 2019.
Bruel has been in police detention since Monday for questioning. In a statement on Wednesday, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office said it has requested that the star remain in custody ahead of a possible trial. After the hearing, the court will rule on whether to file official charges against Bruel.
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Though not an international star, Bruel is a household name in France, with dozens of television and film credits, including What’s in a Name? (2012) and The Best Is Yet to Come (2019) as well as several chart-topping albums as a singer.
The allegations against him came to light following an in-depth report by French investigative news website Mediapart in which eight women came forward to accuse Bruel of sexual violence against them. One of his accusers is Daniela Elstner, managing director of French cinema and TV export agency Unifrance, who claims Bruel sexually assaulted her in 1997 when both were attending Unifrance’s French Film Festival in Acapulco, Mexico.
Elstner went public with her experience in 2017, speaking with media outlets including with The Hollywood Reporter, but had never named Bruel, saying only that the alleged attacker was a high-profile figure in the film industry. After the Mediapart investigation, she filed an official police complaint against Bruel, a move that prompted more women to come forward with allegations against the actor. The prosecutor’s office said the current investigations involves two accusations of attempted rape, dating to 2010; three alleged rapes, from 2012, 2015, and 2019; and four incidents of alleged sexual assault or harassment, one from 2000 and three incidents from 2019.
Prosecutors said the investigatory file will also contain separate allegations from 13 women which were either dismissed or which fall outside the statute of limitations, which will now be re-examined “to obtain an overall view of the allegations made against Patrick Bruel.”
The allegations have had an impact on Bruel’s career. He called off a French concert tour planned for this summer and Canadian events organiser Gestev recently announced it had dropped three concert dates in Quebec set for the end of this year. In Paris the the Edouard-VII theatre canceled the final performances of the play Deuxième Partie, starring Bruel, after protests by feminist groups.
Bruel denies all the allegations made against him. In a statement on Monday, Bruel’s lawyers said he would answer the allegations within “the framework of the judicial procedure.”
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