Gerard Depardieu denies rape allegations in open letter

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Depardieu is one of France's best-known actors

Gerard Depardieu has denied rape and sexual assault allegations made against him, in an open letter published in a prominent French newspaper.

"Never, ever have I abused a woman," the French actor wrote in the letter that appeared in Le Figaro.

"To the media court, to the lynching that has been reserved for me, I have only my word to defend myself," the 74-year-old added.

A woman accused the actor of raping and assaulting her in Paris in August 2018.

Depardieu's lawyer told French news agency AFP at the time that his client "totally dispute[d]" the allegation, and said the investigation should not have been made public.

A lawyer for the actor said he "formally denies all the charges which may fall under criminal law".

In his lengthy letter published in Le Figaro's opinion pages, Depardieu wrote: "I can no longer allow what I hear, what I have read about myself for several months. I thought I didn't care, but no, actually no. This all gets to me. Worse still, it wipes me out.

"Hurting a woman would be like kicking my own mother in the stomach," he continued.

He also suggested that the woman who accused him of rape came up to his room "of her own free will".

Deadline reported that the lawyer for his accuser said she was "shocked and scandalized" by the letter in an interview with French radio station France Info on Monday morning.

"Mr. Depardieu says he is exposing his truth, but... it will certainly not be the one that will be upheld by the courts," she said.

Responding to the separate allegations of sexual assault and harassment, Depardieu wrote: "I've often done that which others wouldn't dare to do: pushed limits, shaken certitudes, habits on the set between two takes, between two tensions… to get a laugh.

"Not everyone laughed. If, in believing to live the present intensely, I hurt, shocked someone, whoever it was, it was never my intention to hurt, and I beg you to excuse me for behaving like a child who wanted to have fun in a gallery."

Depardieu has appeared in some 170 films, getting his big break in 1973 with Les Valseuses (Going Places).

He won the best actor award for Cyrano de Bergerac at Cannes in 1990, and was nominated for an Oscar for the same role.

Green Card, an English-language comedy made the same year, brought him further acclaim outside the French-speaking world.

Off-screen, he has made headlines in recent years for attacking French tax laws, moving to Belgium in protest.

In 2013, he took Russian citizenship, with his decree of naturalisation signed personally by President Vladimir Putin.

Depardieu said the Russian people were not responsible for their president's behaviour.

Mr Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the actor probably did not completely understand the situation in Ukraine and offered to explain it.