'I didn't rape or drug anyone': Luc Besson issues tearful public denial over sexual allegations

Nine women have said they were assaulted or harassed by Luc Besson
Nine women have said they were assaulted or harassed by Luc Besson Credit: Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

French film director Luc Besson on Tuesday denied raping or drugging a young actress in his first public reaction to the allegations.   

The tearful denial came four days after a judge reopened a rape investigation into the maker of The Fifth Element, which was brought by the Dutch-Belgian actress Sand Van Roy, who claimed that Mr Besson had repeatedly raped her over a two-year period.

Paris prosecutors had dropped the case due to lack of evidence eight months ago but Ms Van Roy filed for fresh charges.

“For those who thought that the Luc Besson affair was over, it has only just begun,” she announced to the press.

The actress is one of nine women who allege they were assaulted or harassed by one of the most powerful figures in French cinema.

Ms Van Roy, 28, had minor roles in his films Taxi 5 and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Mr Besson has admitted having a relationship with Van Roy but denied he had raped her.

"I did not rape that woman, I have never raped a woman in my life," he told BFMTV. "I have never lifted a hand to a woman, I have never threatened a woman... I never drugged this woman as has been said," he said in extracts from the interview.

In an emotional exchange, Mr Besson, 60, said that he had a relationship with Ms Van Roy and had made "some mistakes".

"I betrayed my wife and my children. It did not only happen once, it happened several times during our 20 years of marriage," he added, paying tribute to his wife Virginie for sticking with him despite his affairs.

“I looked at myself and said: ‘You have lied to the people you love.’ I did what I should have done for the past 40 years and had always refused to do: go and see a shrink.”

Sand Van Roy attends the screening of "A Hidden Life (Une Vie Cachée)" during the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2019 in Cannes, France
Actress Sand Van Roy has filed for rape charges against Luc Besson  Credit: Samir Hussein/ WireImage

Ms Van Roy first filed a complaint with police in May 2018 and later said that she had been raped four times during “a controlling professional relationship" with the director that lasted two years.

Fears for her career kept her from speaking out, she said. Police questioned Mr Besson about the accusations in October 2018.

One actress later told prosecutors that she had to escape on "her hands and knees" from an audition in Besson's Paris office in 2002.

A source close to the new investigation told AFP preliminary inquiries into accusations by another woman are still underway in Paris.

Mr Besson is bringing out an autobiography this week called Enfant Terrible.

In an interview with Nouvel Obs, Ms Van Roy said: "He was like a guru; I was under his sway. He was constantly checking my whereabouts."

Besides his legal woes, Mr Besson is facing financial ruin after a series of box office failures that have plunged his 20-year old film studio EuropaCorp to the brink of bankruptcy.

He has been in talks to cede a controlling stake in the studio, located in a northern Paris suburb, to an American investment fund after it ran up losses of €200 million in two years.

EuropaCorp previously held discussions with several high-profile companies, including Netflix, but the talks froze after the rape allegations emerged.

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