Gisele Pelicot survived mass rape. Now, she’s speaking out to build a better future

PARIS - Just over a year after her former husband and dozens of other men were convicted of

raping her while she was in a drugged state,

Gisèle Pelicot says she is happy and at peace.

She is in good health, with no flashbacks from the years of abuse. A recent operation cleared her of cervical cancer from one of the four sexually transmitted diseases that the rapists passed to her. In February, she paid off the last of the debts racked up by her former husband. And she has fallen in love with a man who shares her life and home, and sits in the next room waiting for the interview to end.