(suspenseful music)
- [Carre] There's a culture of silence in the industry
because most people live in fear.
- I was 15 and he was 42.
- My agency was manipulating me.
It's human trafficking.
- You will all be providing your testimonies
as part of the French criminal investigation.
- [Anne-Claire] Jean-Luc Brunel is exposed as a rapist,
but he continued to work.
- [Marie] I was completely in shock
at how expansive this web is.
- Having the hope of him standing trial.
I was like, "Yes."
And if he could get convicted
and then have it just go, puh!.
- I just don't understand how that even happened.
I just don't understand it.
- Doesn't matter if we're fucking models.
It's a human rights violation, period.
(dramatic music)
- [Sydney] Over the last year,
the Model Alliance has been supporting survivors
of Gerald Marie.
Six of them have traveled from across the world
to testify to the French police
about the abuse they suffered
by their former modeling agent Gerald Marie.
- [Carre] I look at my journey to get to this point,
30 years.
- [Jill] Nobody talks about it until someone does it first.
So I'll go first.
I'm older.
I can do it.
I want other people to not have shame.
- [Shawna] It's not until you take a step back
from the situation
and realize exactly the level of abuse that you experienced.
- We all have collectively been waking up
to very painful reality of what we actually did endure.
I really thought that everything was happening
was just happening to me.
It had no idea the level that I now comprehend.
(calm music)
- April 8th, 1986, and it skips.
And then it totally changes handwriting.
And it says, "June 12th before and after the rape."
And I'm back home and writing in my journal and I'm like,
"I hate myself. I just keep crying. I don't leave the house.
I think I'm going insane.
This pain of misery is too great to be tolerated anymore.
I will do something drastic."
And I was seriously thinking I was suicidal.
Yeah.
I just went home and I didn't tell anyone.
I didn't tell my parents. I didn't tell my boyfriend.
I just, I didn't tell anyone.
For the next two years, I was completely shut down about it.
Did not wanna talk about it.
And then I couldn't wake up in the morning.
My mom she's like, "Why aren't you getting up?
And what's wrong with you?"
She said, "You're gonna go to a therapist."
And I didn't even tell the woman the story.
I felt like in some way I failed
because I thought I was smarter.
- It was clear that any money that I did make
was going to go back to the agency.
I was holding a round-trip ticket, Elite had paid for me.
I got on that plane to Northern California
and got out of that situation.
I'm so grateful that I got away.
When I came back to California,
it gave me enough space to settle, to cry a lot,
to gain weight.
I was still in that, like,
how do I enter this industry on my terms?
I'd spent time getting a portfolio in Europe.
I had a cover.
I'd found an agent and I could actually get paying work
for the first time.
I started to work with GUESS, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan.
I was doing much better in some ways,
but of course I still had not told anyone
Gerald Marie had raped me when I was 17.
I was still keeping a really intense secret.
This was one of the first "Vogue" covers
to have two women on it.
When I got a call that I was going to go to Greece
and that Linda Evangelista was going to be the other model,
my heart sank.
I felt incredibly insecure.
Linda was married to Gerald at this point.
And so it was this dirty, horrible secret.
And I'm sure he hadn't told her.
So I was just incredibly uncomfortable
and incredibly ashamed.
I was trying to portray beauty and youth and sexy and happy
and carefree.
And I was so heavily burdened
by the experiences that I'd had that first round in Paris.
(soft music)
Linda was, and is an incredible model.
So to show up with someone iconic like Linda
who was married to my rapist was incredibly mind blowing.
I got through it, but it was really a rough shoot for me.
It was really triggering
and she couldn't have known any of that.
And I didn't have the tools and ability
to articulate any of it.
- After I was raped, I decided to leave the industry.
I went back home.
I just wanted to leave the bad memories behind me.
And the fact that I can talk about this
and I still feel trauma in my body,
and I still feel like I'm on the verge of crying
says a lot because a lot of time has passed
and I thought I'd dealt with it.
But speaking about it brings up a lot of negative emotions.
So I mean, I can see patterns in my past relationships
where that broken part of me came out.
(soft music)
- I spent 10 years covering fashion.
I then wrote a book
that many people probably would've preferred
was not written.
And on these trips to Europe where I did these interviews
and where I fielded threats, occasionally,
I did feel paranoid.
I had kept all of my tapes of these interviews
in someone else's apartment, not in my hotel room,
because, again, I was a little nervous
about what these people were capable of.
I felt that I was dealing with people
who were capable of just about anything.
- Ever since I had quit Elite,
I had been trying to speak out to the media in Chicago,
but nobody would listen.
There's a culture of silence in the industry
because most people live in fear.
I have been very shunned by the industry for speaking out.
I have had amazing amounts of people
who have gone out of their way
to prevent me from getting back into the agency business.
(clock ticking)
(suspenseful music)
- Model agencies around the world
are to rethink their policy of hiring girls
under the age of 16 for fashion shoots and catwalk modeling.
Following a BBC documentary,
alleging exploitation of young girls by Elite Europe.
- There was an expose on the BBC in 1999,
which in part focused on Gerald Marie.
- I remember seeing the BBC doc at the time.
I was 22, and I remember I was silently happy thinking that,
okay, these men are being held accountable
and life took care of itself and they're gonna go down.
You basically caught Gerald Marie on camera.
And it really looked like he was trying to sleep with girls
at the Look of the Year.
It hit home 'cause I was like, "Yeah, that was me."
And it also validated everything
like all the confused feelings I had around that experience
and the blame that...
The blame that I put on myself
and it just kind of exposed what a pig that man is.
- I got a VHS tape of that documentary and I watched it.
I'm like, "Hello people.
This is what I've been saying.
This did happen."
Sexual impropriety, all of it was true.
And I was so excited that it was going to now
be worldwide knowledge.
(tense music)
(train moving sound)
(calm music)
- I was watching very closely to see who was gonna say what
and who was gonna come forward with more information
and the list of victims.
I was really expecting all this.
It felt like there's finally justice.
(calm music)
The documentary had to be retracted and never shown again.
And that was just crushing because it was all there.
- [Micheal] Right. - [John] No.
- [Micheal] Mm hmm.
- Gerald Marie was suspended for a minute.
And then he was back in business for all these years.
It's so outrageous.
- It was crushing for all of us.
The little bit of hope that I had had
that this information would be finally divulged worldwide
was snuffed out immediately.
And I assumed at that moment,
this story would never be heard again.
And it was devastating.
(exhales)
(clears throat)
- Yeah.
I just don't understand how that even happened.
I just don't understand it.
- That must be a powerful feeling to abuse people,
have it exposed publicly and then get away with it.
I mean, I assume that he felt invincible.
(clock ticking)
- I don't think that the fashion business
had any great interest or inclination to change.
Talking about some of the nasty stuff,
the bugs in the mattress was not gonna fly.
They just had no interest in it.
And so I think that anyone who expected them
to suddenly stand up and testify was kidding themselves.
(police siren blaring)
(calm music)
- I started investigating this in 2018.
I'd been reporting on the Harvey Weinstein case.
I had realized that quite a few of his accusers were models.
And they were telling me that they were introduced to him
via modeling agents.
Gerald Marie's name came up again and again,
but quite often the women were scared to come forward
about a man who was still working in the industry.
Marie was still working at a small agency in Paris
and working with models.
It took really a few years to get enough evidence together
and get enough women to come forward.
And that includes the stories of Carre Otis, Shawna Lee,
and Jill Dodd.
- When I talked to Lucy,
I'll never forget I was at my daughter's house
and I was walking around and around the block
and it was raining and I came back
and I was trying to explain to her,
"I cannot believe someone actually cares about this story."
It was like a pivot of everything.
It completely changed at that point.
- In total, in "The Guardian" investigations
into Gerald Marie,
we told stories of 16 different women
and their allegations spanned 20 years
and highlighted a pattern of behavior.
For example, a lot of them experienced the sexual assaults
at Gerald Marie's home.
And quite often as well,
we kept hearing these allegations of the abuse
being tied into work somehow.
So sort of being rewarded
for not speaking about it afterwards
by being given the promise of high profile work.
- When I read the article,
I think it just brought out a lot of traumatic feelings,
just seeing everyone's stories back to back,
one after the other.
I felt awful for myself.
I felt awful for the experiences that the other women had.
I did not know any of those women existed
before that investigation.
- It's not that I thought I was a standalone case
with Gerald, but my worldview was tiny. I was 17.
I was a kid.
So I had no idea how far and wide the abuses went.
- It's this huge well orchestrated system of abuse
that has been going on for decades.
It wasn't just a few bad apples.
It was this much more systemic problem.
And it wasn't just limited to the modeling industry.
They were supplying this broader network of powerful men.
And the most sinister
is learning about Epstein's connection.
(dramatic music)
- [News Reporter] 66 Year old Jeffrey Epstein
was arrested Saturday in New Jersey
after returning from Paris on his private jet.
- [News Reporter] The 66 year old
is charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy.
Now, prosecutors say the alleged sex ring
may have involved dozens of underage teenage girls.
- [News Reporter] Prosecutors referred to Epstein
as an alleged serial predator.
- Jeffrey Epstein had relationships
with various modeling agents
and had varying levels of success
in establishing agencies with them
or going into business with them in some way.
These are just some of the lawsuits
that we've used as part of "The Guardian" reporting.
This is the lawsuit of a woman
that I spoke to a couple of years ago.
She alleges that while she was working
for Elite Model Management when she was about 15,
she was sent by John Casablancas to Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein introduced himself as a photographer.
And it goes on to explain that he sexually assaulted her.
Perhaps most significant is his relationship with Brunel,
which in 2004, resulted in Brunel setting up an agency
backed by Epstein in Miami
just down the road from Epstein's Palm Beach mansion.
- Another arrest connected to financier
and accused sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein,
this one in Paris,
of famed modeling agent, Jean-Luc Brunel.
He is facing potential charges of rape, sexual assault,
including of minors, sexual harassment,
and like his good friend, Jeffrey Epstein,
sex trafficking of minors.
- [News Reporter] Epstein told one of his victims
that he had slept with more than 1000 women
sent to him by Jean-Luc Brunel.
- Virginia Giuffre accuses Brunel of supplying Epstein
with more than a thousand girls and women to abuse.
It's quite a staggering figure.
She also alleges that
she was forced to have sex with Brunel.
And she says that it was Brunel
that often arranged the travel documents
for Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein
to get these women from all around the world
to wherever Epstein was.
Brunel and Epstein's relationship dates back years,
they were allegedly introduced by Ghislaine Maxwell
back in the 80s.
Brunel lived in Epstein's apartment building in New York
for some time.
This photograph was recently released
as part of Ghislaine Maxwell's trial.
So it's the first picture that we've seen
of Ghislaine, Epstein, and Brunel together.
In fact, it's the first picture we've seen of Epstein
and Brunel together before.
And it's on Epstein's private jet,
the so-called Lolita Express.
And in the other pictures,
you can see Ghislaine is giving Epstein a foot rub.
Brunel, according to Epstein's flight logs,
he flew on Epstein's private jet 25 times,
which really shows you how close they were
and how much time they were spending together.
- When I heard about the Jeffrey Epstein thing,
I got this weird pit in my stomach.
I had no idea they knew each other.
This man, for decades
has been doing this horrible stuff to girls.
And if he's not conquering them sexually,
he's sending them off to his friends to do so.
(tense music)
- It has dawned on me over the past year
that there was a network of agents
that were working to supply young women
to rich powerful men.
And it wasn't until I spoke with a lawyer and he said to me,
"Do you understand that that's classic,
classic human trafficking?"
And it hit me like a ton of bricks.
It was so, so unbelievably painful.
- It's taken 40 years for me to realize
that I was trafficked.
Someone purchased a meeting with me
without my knowing about it.
So yeah, I was pissed off when I realized it.
And I was angry and I was hurt and I was just...
It was devastating.
(tense music)
- Let's stop with trying to normalize and cover up
and compartmentalize and make excuses
for horrific human rights violations.
It doesn't matter if we are fucking models.
It's a human rights violation, period.
- I was completely in shock at how expansive this web is.
And it definitely falls
under the category of human trafficking.
And I was appalled to realize that I've been a part of it.
(calm music)
- Hi ladies.
- [Both] Hi Carre.
- [Carre] Hi. How is everyone?
- The flood gates opened and more women came forward.
And then we started meeting once a week over zoom
and the group is still growing.
It can take decades for the numbers to align
and to where you understand what actually happened to you.
- Now, there are lots of us.
- [Lesa] With me,
I felt much stronger once Carrie had come out
and the other women, Jill and Lori,
and it really made me feel much more comfortable
to come forward. I think it's-
- Several survivors reached out to me
and asked if I would be willing to put my name
in a written testimony,
a legal testimony against Gerald Marie
to open up a criminal investigation in Paris.
I started to think about the bigger picture.
It could possibly be many more women.
So it was myself and two other women that came forward first
to offer our testimony, a written testimony
to French authorities.
(hopeful music)
- The case has been accepted by the prosecutor
because of number of victim.
At first it was only four victims who came forward.
And then one more, one more.
And today we are at 14 victims,
which is a really big number.
The investigation has been open against Gerald Marie
for rape, rape on minor, and sexual assault.
- In a few short weeks,
you will all be providing your testimonies
as part of the French criminal investigation
into Gerald Marie.
- To be doing this all together
and Paris to be 10 days away, I feel ready.
I feel like this year has been just massive preparation
to go do this.
- Talking to each other as witnesses
of what we all went through, it becomes more and more real.
I'm looking forward to meeting everybody in person,
and I feel like you guys are all my sisters.
I wish you lived next door to me so I could just go.
(laughs)
(tense music)
- It's unbelievable
that this is where all of us endured such harm
and that we're all willing to actually go back
and testify and revisit this place.
It's been incredibly powerful
to be with this group of women.
There is something about safety in numbers.
It's felt doable taking these big courageous steps.
(tense music)
This is an amazing moment for myself
and for so many survivors.
For so many of us,
certainly within the modeling industry
that have had to just normalize so much harassment and abuse
for decades.
- I am nervous that more is gonna come back today
that I haven't quite dealt with yet.
So I'm scared about that for sure.
Yeah.
Just the reality of what happened.
It's hard to believe that I was raped and sold.
- [Both] Hi.
- How are you?
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you. Thanks for being here.
Hi. That's Jeff.
- Hi. How are you?
- Hi. Nice to meet you.
- Good to see you.
- What happened to you with Gerald Marie,
it will be very focused on him, of course.
So sometimes she will ask you not get back to Gerald Marie.
- okay.
- Everything you can remember about names, dates,
because they try to identify coconspirators as well.
And you can also, of course, talk about human trafficking.
I think it's gonna be interesting
as soon as there's this link with Gerald Marie.
(tense music)
- My deposition was six and a half hours.
I was determined not to cry,
but the detective said something to me
to the effect of no judgment.
And I caught onto that and I started bawling.
And the fact that she was saying to the interpreter,
she wanted me to be able to speak
without feeling like I was judged.
When all of my life I've been judged by this
by so many people.
And then to hear her say this, it broke me.
And then that she used that same word later
and it broke me again.
(chuckles)
So it shows me that I'm not 100% healed yet.
I know that I'm not.
I don't know if you can ever be a 100% healed
from these things.
(clock ticking sound)
- Being here again brings back a lot of memories
when I was here as a teenager.
I think it's important for these conversations to be had
as far as the type of abuse of power
that's gone on in the fashion industry for a very long time,
not just Gerald Marie specifically,
although this is about him.
I think the meaning of this is to help protect young girls
in the industry as a whole.
It's more than just being about myself.
We're all here to help create change.
I think it's sort of been healing in a way
to be able to talk about shared experiences.
I guess I'm just realizing that
I have hung on to a lot of the trauma
and it's maybe a way to kind of release it
by realizing that there was a lot of others
and that we can kind of stand together on this.
- But there's this caveat.
There's something called the statute of limitations.
There's a French law
which means you can't charge someone with a crime
if it took place more than 30 years ago.
(tense music)
(motorcycle engine revving)
I and the other survivors are time barred in France,
meaning we're all outside of the statute of limitations.
- We don't have any recent victims.
So Gerald Marie at this time cannot be officially charged
for all his crimes.
- The hope and motivation of going all the way to Paris
to give our testimony
is really to help push forward this case.
And the only way to do that is if somebody comes forward,
whose abuse took place less than 30 years ago.
I have no doubt that there are women
who are within the statute that will come forward.
And once that happens in Paris, France,
then it moves from a criminal investigation
to a possible case against Gerald.
(calm music)
- [Marianne] Breakfast.
(both laugh)
- Oh, I've waiting for this.
I'm so hungry.
Thanks.
- There is a lawyer representing all these women
in Paris right now against this agent from Elite
named Gerald Marie.
She's the same lawyer
who's going to be going after Jean-Luc
from the agency I worked for.
- Ooh. - Yeah.
- That sounds promising.
- And I'm gonna be speaking with her today.
- It's high time something is being done about it.
We have to speak up?
- Yeah.
- Jean-Luc Brunel was arrested in December, 2020.
He was indicted for the rape of a minor
and he remains in custody awaiting trial in Paris.
Unlike the Gerald Marie investigation,
a woman has come forward within the statute of limitations
for the Jean-Luc Brunel case,
which means that the case can move forward to trial.
And Marianne now feels ready
to add her own testimony to the case
in the hope that Brunel can finally be brought to account.
- Hi, can you hear me?
- Yes. It's Marianne.
- I'm happy to talk to you
and I'd be happy to hear your story, of course.
What's your experience with him?
- I try to go to sleep and at some point I fall asleep,
I guess.
And then I wake up startled
and he's completely naked on top of me
trying to penetrate me.
And I'm in shock and I'm scared. I'm freaked out.
- Okay.
And so did he try, or did he penetrate you actually?
- I had panties on and if I didn't have that,
it would've...
Who knows what would've happened.
- [Anne-Claire] Yeah, yeah.
And then I flipped him to the side in complete shock
and then he pushed my head down to do oral on him,
which I didn't wanna do.
I didn't want his skin touching me at all.
I was completely hysterical about this.
And then he made me jerk him off with my hand.
(tense music)
- I'm sorry mom.
(calm music)
- [Anne-Claire] So now you are ready
to submit your testimony to the justice,
to the French prosecutor?
- Oh, absolutely.
Anyone who wants to hear it, if it helps,
I'm so willing to come there to do whatever.
- Okay. I will mention that to the judge.
When I will submit your testimony,
I will also let him know that
you are ready to come to testify here in Paris.
- That'd be fabulous.
I hope we can get a bunch of women
who've been hurt by Jean-Luc to do this. Yeah.
- Okay. Bye Marianne.
- All right. Au revoir.
Bye-bye.
- Wow.
- Whew, man, she sounds amazing.
- I never heard all those details.
- I know. I'm sorry.
- That's okay, you don't have to be sorry about it.
I'm very proud that you can sit there and talk of it
so openly, that takes guts.
- Thank you.
I feel incredibly supported and heard.
And I also feel it's still affecting me,
this horrible situation with him.
I don't care about this statute of limitations thing.
The trauma is there. It's very real.
(calm music)
I heard that John-Luc Brunel had died in his cell.
I just sat there and went, "You've got to be kidding.
This can't be happening."
And I felt like all this time,
the 14 months or so that he's been in jail,
there was hope, there was a possibility.
And then it completely just slammed the lid on that.
And I was shocked at first.
And then as the day wore on, I was super angry.
I had buried it for so many years
and then opening up that file again and bringing it out
and then having to feel all those feelings
and then having the hope of him standing trial
was like, yes.
And if he could get convicted
and maybe there's a possibility of him
even admitting some wrongdoing,
how healing that would be for so many people
and then have it just go, puh!
And not possible.
(tense music)
Now that this tragedy happened with Jean-Luc Brunel
and we were denied an opportunity to go to court.
It's even more imperative than ever before
that the Gerald Marie case goes to court.
(upbeat music)
- For the first Gerald Marie "Guardian" investigation,
I spoke to Linda Evangelista,
who was speaking for the first time
about her ex-husband Gerald Marie.
And she said,
"I believe these women are telling the truth
based on my own experiences."
We quote her saying,
"During my relationship with Gerald Marie,
I knew nothing of these sexual allegations against him.
So I was unable to help these women.
But I admire their courage and strength
for speaking up today."
- [Carre] Linda Evangelista came forward to support us,
and I am incredibly relieved for that.
- There have been super models who have come forward,
speaking out in supportive Carre Otis and the other women.
Seeing big names like Carla Bruni, Paulina Porizkova,
and Karen Elson, putting their names to this.
I think it's symbolic
and hopefully it's the start of something more.
- Finally, the conversation is being had.
For decades, I've been speaking out
trying to prevent sexual trauma
by empowering people with awareness.
And I was alone until now.
- This is a culture that has created an atmosphere
in which these things are allowed to develop, take root
and blossom, and it's not going away.
It's gotten a little bit better
and hopefully it will continue to get better.
(hopeful music)
- Over the last year,
the Model Alliance has been supporting survivors
of Gerald Marie.
While Marie's abuse has long been an open secret
in the modeling industry,
he has largely evaded any responsibility for his actions.
That changes today.
- It is really surreal to be back in Paris.
It is roughly 30 years ago that this photo was taken of me.
This was my first French "ELLE" cover.
I was 17 years old and I remember it vividly.
And at the same time the photo was taken,
Gerald Marie had started to sexually assault me.
I was dependent on Marie for my food,
for my housing and for my employment.
I was young, alone, and in a foreign country with no family
or support system for me.
I knew I had to endure the abuse
in order to continue working.
That was made very clear to me.
The industry that enabled my abuse
and let men pay for access to women
is still the same industry today.
That's why being here in France
and testifying to the French police with these women
(sniffles)
is so meaningful.
Naming him sends a signal to other women
who may be suffering,
that you're not alone,
and we are here for you.
We're doing this in support of other survivors
and also an invitation for anyone
who is within the statute of limitations.
Please join us. We're here for you.
(indistinct chatters)
This is what I've been waiting to do
to be able to show up and have my story heard.
I mean, it took until now for people to listen
and talk about it.
And now I'm standing with all these amazing women
who are able to talk about it, and it's just huge.
- [Shawna] The hope is not only justice,
but it's a healing process for us personally,
but it's also a good opportunity to help others come forward
and to help others realize that they're not alone.
- It feels actually really nice to be heard.
That my story, on some level maybe will make a difference.
- What Gerald Marie did to me was horrible
and what a lot of other people did to me
because they looked the other way is equally as horrible.
So for me, this really is about
sparking a greater conversation
so that we can start to address these issues
and see change.
(calm music)