In 2017, he lifted the veil on this tragedy that he experienced at the age of ten. On the tray of We are not in bedmoved, his voice trembling, Francis Huster had put words about the rape he suffered at his grandmother’s home, late at night. Guest from A Sunday in the Country this November 19, 2023 on France 2, the actor once again spoke with great emotion about these same facts, in front of Frédéric Lopez, Véronic DiCaire and Jean-François Piège, upset by the terrible story of the ex of Isabelle Adjani.
“One weekend, at my grandmother’s country house, it was the middle of the night, and I start to hear someone talking to me, who has entered my bed, and who begins to rape me, with a knife to my neck. In total darkness. It lasts at least twenty-thirty minutes. I remember very long conversations. And then all of a sudden, he leaves, because there are the headlights of my grandmother’s car lighting up the room, so he’s gone.” explains Francis Huster. On their arrival, his grandmother and her companion, André Wirth, found the young child bleeding, and did not believe him, but fortunately for him, the man had made a shocking mistake: “I explained to her that there was someone on top of me. She said to me: It’s okay, it’s okay, your dreams, your things… Except that… He had dropped his hat. So André picks up the guy’s hat, and the next day, I find myself at the police station.”.
A racist police officer who wanted to confuse an innocent person
Faced with a robust and racist police officer, Francis Huster struggles to make himself heard. The man presents him with six photos of African people, with the intention that the young child will denounce one of them: “I’m sitting, André has accompanied me (…) and all of a sudden, the cop takes six or seven photos of blacks and Algerians out of his drawerBy telling me Which one is it, which one is it, make no mistake. And at that moment, I turn around, I feel André, I look at him, he looks at me (…) I turn around, and I say: It’s none. It was in the dark sir, how would you like me to know who it was?“ The police officer, furious, then takes him out of his office. The matter will remain there.
Francis Huster will eventually rebuild his life thanks to André, his grandmother’s companion. Very moved when recalling the memory of the latter, the actor from the Comédie-Française declared that he had saved his life: “In the car, my grandmother was waiting, André takes the wheel, and they look at me in the rear view mirror, and I saw a look… He gave me life. Because, I said to myself, at that moment: You’re a man“. Very moving, trying secrets that France 2 viewers were able to find this Sunday.