French singer and actor Patrick Bruel denied multiple allegations of rape and sexual assault after prosecutors confirmed that several complaints against him were under investigation.
In an Instagram post on Sunday, Bruel said that he had “hesitated for a long time” before speaking publicly and had initially chosen “to reserve my words for the justice system”.
“I have never forced a woman,” the singer, 67, wrote in French. “I’ve never drugged, manipulated or sought to subjugate anyone. I have never used my fame to abuse anyone or obtain non-consensual relationships. People may say that this message is complicated, in a society where everything must be black or white. In reality, it is simple: I have never forced a woman. And I never wanted to hurt anyone. And if I may have hurt anyone, I sincerely regret it.”
On Sunday, AFP reported the Paris prosecutor’s office announcing that Bruel was the subject of four complaints involving sexual violence in France and that the proceedings would be grouped together.
Bruel also directly addressed allegations published on the French investigative website Mediapart by television presenter Flavie Flament that the actor raped her in 1991, when she was 16 and he was 32 and at the height of his fame.
“I met Flavie Flament in the 1990s. My career had begun and she was just starting hers. We crossed paths, we saw each other again a few times, and we had a brief relationship together,” he said. “This relationship was neither violent nor coercive nor underhanded. There was neither rape nor drugs. I never mistreated her, nor abandoned her outside a ‘seedy hotel’.”
Those who had known them over the years, he added, “never perceived anything between us other than a closeness born of shared memories”.
Bruel said he did not understand why Flament was now “telling a different and sordid story”.
“I know simply that this story is false,” he said. “I understand that our age difference may provoke a reaction today. I also understand that fame or status can skew a romantic relationship.”
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day
New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day
New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
“Several voices have been calling for my public condemnation, without a trial, as if the sheer number of accusations were enough to establish the truth,” he continued, adding that he had “complete faith” in the justice system and defending “the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair investigation, and justice”.
Bruel said he would continue performing “with the same dedication and the same passion”.
Bruel, one of France’s most commercially successful singers of the late 1980s and early 1990s, rose to fame with albums like Alors regarde, released in 1991. Known for hits like “Casser la voix” and “Place des grands hommes”, he later built a parallel acting career and appeared in over 40 films, including Le Prénom, for which he received a César award nomination.
The allegations against Bruel span several decades and multiple jurisdictions.
Mediapart published testimony in March from eight women accusing the actor of sexual violence or inappropriate behaviour between 1992 and 2019. One of the women, according to France24, was a minor at the time of the alleged assault.
The following month, Elle magazine published allegations from four more women accusing Bruel of rape and sexual assault.
On 15 April, Le Monde reported the Paris prosecutor’s office had opened a preliminary investigation following a complaint alleging sexual assault “that may have taken place several decades ago”.
A separate investigation was launched in Saint-Malo after a woman accused Bruel of raping her during the Dinard British Film Festival in October 2012, where he was serving as jury president. According to Screen Daily, the complaint was filed in September 2024.
In Belgium, prosecutors were investigating a complaint filed in March this year concerning an alleged sexual assault dating back to 2010. According to Le Monde, a press officer working on the promotion of the film Comme les cinq doigts de la main alleged that Bruel had assaulted her at the offices of Belgian broadcaster RTBF during a publicity tour.
Bruel’s lawyers, Christophe Ingrain and Céline Lasek, have repeatedly rejected the allegations. Bruel, they have said, “has never ignored a woman’s reluctance, let alone her refusal” and “never forced any gesture or sexual act”.
Addressing the allegations dating back nearly 30 years, they said Bruel “never ‘threw himself’ at anyone, not in a car, a parking lot, or anywhere else”.
The lawyers have also pointed to earlier investigations that ended without prosecution. In 2019, investigations were opened in Perpignan and Ajaccio after complaints by two massage therapists alleging sexual assault and sexual exhibitionism but were closed in 2020 due to lack of sufficient evidence.
Bruel is currently featuring in the Paris theatre production Deuxième partie by Samuel Benchetrit and is due to begin a concert tour on 16 June with shows across France, Switzerland, Belgium, and Canada.
A petition backed by feminist groups is calling for the concerts to be cancelled.