A former titan of the style business is dealing with a number of accusations of sexual assault. Fifteen ladies have gone to the French authorities with allegations of sexual assault towards Gerald Marie, who for many years was probably the most highly effective males on this planet of modeling.
Two of his accusers, Laurie Marsden and Lisa Brinkworth, shared their tales with CBS Information.
“I began in New York Metropolis, after which I went to Milan, which is kind of the trajectory that a variety of fashions undergo,” Laurie Marsden mentioned. “After which my Milanese company mentioned, ‘Why do not you strive Paris?'”
Marsden was a high mannequin within the Nineteen Eighties. She arrived in Paris on the age of 19. Her agent was Marie, who on the time was probably the most highly effective males within the modeling business. Marsden claims Marie informed her she’d be a star. Nevertheless, at a home occasion, he attacked her, Marsden mentioned.
“He jumped on high of me and he had me pinned down,” Marsden mentioned. “And he tried to rape me. I lastly acquired out from beneath him, after which I fled.”
“There was no query that he was there for intercourse,” Marsden mentioned when requested whether or not she believed it was an tried rape. “And the truth that he wasn’t stopping, and the truth that he was pulling my garments off, there got here a second the place I mentioned to myself, ‘You’ll be raped.'”
Marsden says she did not go to the police on the time as a result of she thought she would not be taken severely.
The accusations from the 15 ladies had been dropped at French authorities in September of 2021. The alleged assaults occurred within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties.
One other certainly one of Marie’s alleged victims is Lisa Brinkworth. In 1998, Brinkworth was an undercover journalist engaged on a documentary concerning the abuse of younger fashions. She was posing as a mannequin herself. She says she encountered Marie at a nightclub with different modeling executives.
“Gerald Marie was subsequent to me, and he was changing into very, very insistent that we might sleep collectively,” Brinkworth mentioned. “After which, rapidly, with none warning, he straddled me and pinned me behind my chair, and kind of simulated intercourse. And this went on for a while. I used to be completely terrified I used to be going to be raped. And I used to be shouting, ‘No, no.’ Then ultimately he acquired off me.”
Brinkworth says she recorded a video account instantly after the assault, which was obtained by “60 Minutes Australia.”
“It was simply completely horrific,” she mentioned within the video.
Nevertheless, she says she was prevented from going to the authorities as a result of it might have impacted the documentary.
“After dinner, Gerald Marie presents to have a drink at his home. Generally he simply says that they should speak concerning the job, and eventually, once they acquired there, you understand, he assaults them,” Anne-Claire Le Jeune, a French lawyer representing the 15 alleged victims, informed CBS Information in Paris, the world’s trend capital, the place Marie as soon as sat on the pinnacle of the modeling enterprise.
Le Jeune says many of the alleged assaults occurred outdoors the French statute of limitations, too way back for Marie to be charged. Marie is now retired.
“The modeling business creates an ideal storm for predators,” Marsden mentioned. “You have got very savvy older males, after which you might have very younger ladies — 15, 16, 17 years outdated — who’re thrown collectively.”
“It’s fully unregulated,” Brinkworth mentioned. “Vogue truly thrives on the abuse of women. I imply, they go hand in hand.”
Marie, who’s now in his 70s, has by no means been charged with against the law.
“We’re simply attacked,” he mentioned in a 1999 interview, when requested about a number of the accusations.
His lawyer informed CBS Information in a press release that Marie “firmly objects to the defamatory and false allegations made towards him” and is “withholding his statements for the justice system.”
