Depardieu released after questioning about allegations made by two women that he sexually assaulted them on film sets.

French actor Gerard Depardieu has been released after police questioned him in connection with sexual assault allegations, his lawyer has said.

French media had reported earlier on Monday that Depardieu was in police custody for questioning about allegations made by two women that he sexually assaulted them on film sets.

Speaking to reporters as he was leaving the police station in the 14th district of Paris, the actor’s lawyer, Christian Saint-Palais, said: “The police custody is over. He is no longer held in the police station.”

Depardieu, 75, one of France’s top movie stars, has been at the centre of a number of sexual assault allegations in recent years that have tarnished his legacy and exposed broader divisions about sexual conduct in France.

BFMTV and Le Parisien reported that the police summons relates to accusations of sexual assault filed by two women who accuse him of groping during filming – one in 2014, the other in 2021.

Alleged assaults

The alleged 2014 assault was reported to police in January this year, Le Parisien reported.

The other alleged assault involved a 53-year-old movie decorator. She alleged that Depardieu grabbed her and kneaded her waist, stomach and breasts during filming for the movie Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters), according to the woman’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, when she filed the complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office in February.

Depardieu already faces a rape charge, as well as claims of assault from more than a dozen women – all of which he has strongly denied.