French actress Emmanuelle Beart, 60, was a victim of incest as a child before her grandmother ‘saved’ her
FRENCH actress Emmanuelle Beart has revealed she was the victim of incest from the age of 10.
The 60-year-old star has refused to name her attacker but said it was not her father Guy Beart.
She made the comments in Such a Resounding Silence, a documentary screened at a news conference on Tuesday.
It features the stories of four incest victims, as well as Emmanuelle’s.
Emmanuelle revealed she didn’t want to focus on herself, but instead raise awareness of other incest victims.
“But their honesty and their courage made me want to speak out, too,” she said.
The abuse started when Emmanuelle was 10 and went on until she was 14, she revealed.
In a clip of the documentary Emmanuelle’s voice can be heard off screen addressing her abuser.
She says: “Since my father, my mother and my friends didn’t notice anything, you could do this again, and you did, over four years.”
Emmanuelle, who is co-director of the film alongside Anastasia Mikova, added that she was rescued by her grandmother.
The actress has starred in dozens of films and TV productions over the last 50 years.
Some 160,000 children become victims of sexual assault every year in France.
The documentary will be broadcast on September 24.