French Actor Emmanuelle Debever Found Dead at 60: Reports

Debever was among a number of women in France who have accused actor Gerard Depardieu of sexual assault and harassment

Emmanuelle Debever, a French actor who was among a number of women to accuse Gerard Depardieu of sexual assault and harassment in recent years, has died. She was 60.

Multiple outlets reported Debever died in an apparent suicide Thursday after France's National Audiovisual Institute announced her death Monday in a post shared to X (formerly Twitter). The Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into Debever's death. Authorities stated to ABC News and Variety that her partner reported her missing on Nov. 29 after she departed from their home and left a "worrying note" behind.

According to those reports, Debever later jumped from a bridge into Paris' Seine River and was taken to a hospital. Multiple reports in the U.S. and France suggested she died on Dec. 7, but Variety notes that Paris prosecutors have only shared that Debever's death was announced by media outlets on that date.

A representative for the Paris prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment Thursday.

Related: Actor Gérard Depardieu Denies Rape Allegation as Accuser's Lawyer Is 'Shocked' by His Comments

Some reports regarding Debever's death noted that it occurred on the same day that French broadcaster France 2 aired an episode of the investigative news series Complément d’Enquête centered around the number of allegations made against actor Depardieu, 74, in recent years. However, Debever was not connected with the documentary.

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A spokesperson for France's state-run France Television told PEOPLE Thursday that the Complément d’Enquête episode in question does not mention Debever nor her allegations made against Depardieu in a 2019 Facebook post. The show was never in touch with Debever regarding those allegations, the spokesperson said.

Depardieu was previously charged with raping a young actress at his Paris home in 2018; that case continues to make its way through France's court system. He was initially accused of rape and sexual assault in 2018 and formally charged in December 2020. At one point in June 2019, the investigation into him temporarily was dropped due to a lack of evidence, per The Independent. After that, Debever appeared to share her allegations of assault and harassment on social media.

"Mr. Depardieu, today acquitted of rape and sexual assault. No comment," she wrote in a June 4, 2019 Facebook post, translated to English. In the post, Debever alleged Depardieu of groping her during their time working together on the 1983 movie Danton.

In October, Depardieu published an open letter in the French outlet Le Figaro in which he said he has "never, ever abused a woman" as he acknowledged allegations made against him. "A woman came to my house for the first time, with a light step, going up to my room of her own free will. She says today that she was raped there. She came back a second time," the French actor wrote in his open letter, per Deadline's translation of the letter.

"I played Louison, Danton's very young wife. The sacred monster had allowed himself many things during this filming... Enjoying the privacy inside a carriage," she alleged at the time. "Slipping his big paw under my skirts, supposedly to make me feel better... Me, not letting myself do it."

Debever appeared in 13 French-language movies and television shows between 1982 and 1989, according to her IMDb profile.

The French news outlet Mediapart published an investigation into Depardieu in April detailing allegations made against the actor by 13 women whom the outlet said Depardieu worked with on 11 movies made between 2004 and 2022.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

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