As part of the exhibition After the violencethe actress and mother of Coline Berry-Rojtman took a pose to denounce acts of domestic violence on the part of the actor while she was pregnant.
“I didn’t file a complaint, I left him.” Catherine Hiegel in turn accuses her ex-companion Richard Berry of violence. For years, relations between the actor and the actress have deteriorated and even worsened after the daughter they had together, Coline, accused her father of incest.
This time, the honorary member of the Comédie-Française recounts the violence that she herself suffered at the hands of the actor. In a photo taken for the exhibition After the violence by photographer Marc Melki, the actress appears with a closed face, presenting in front of her a large notebook on which we can read several sentences written in black ink: “He bangs my head against the sink, stitched up at the arch; several slaps, of course. The last one, seven months pregnant, my eardrum explodes, Coline turns over in my stomach. Sentenced to a cesarean section. I didn’t file a complaint, I left him.»
More than three years after her daughter’s complaint, Catherine Hiegel denounced acts of domestic violence of which she was a victim during her relationship with the actor and until the last months of her pregnancy before giving birth to Coline in 1976 .
The exhibition, published on Instagram Thursday May 23, denounces domestic violence through testimonies. Other personalities took a pose like Nagui, Anissa Bonnefont, Bruno Solo, Judith Chemla, and the former footballer Benjamin Nivet. They were all testifying on behalf of a victim. Catherine Hiegel is the only one to have testified on his behalf. Commenting on the photo published on Instagram, Coline Berry-Rojtman welcomed her mother’s speech by writing: “I’m proud of you mom”.
These new accusations against the actor come as the family has been torn apart for years. In February 2021, Coline Berry-Rojtman filed a complaint against her father, actor Richard Berry, for “acts of incestuous rape or sexual assault, and corruption of a minor”. In an interview given to Monde the actor’s eldest daughter spoke of a father who kissed her “on the mouth with the tongue” and often walked around his home naked. In a message on Instagram, she claimed to have “had to participate in his sexual games in a context of notorious domestic violence”.
She also filed a complaint against her partner at the time, Jeane Manson. Faced with these accusations, Richard Berry, now 73 years old, categorically denied his daughter’s accusations in a long message. Following this complaint, the Paris public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation on February 3, 2021 and closed it in August 2022 because the facts denounced were time-barred. The actor’s daughter was, however, convicted of defamation against her ex-mother-in-law Jeane Manson, before finally being acquitted in December 2023.