Gisèle Pelicot said she despite a “very difficult ordeal” she had “never regretted” opening the doors of a trial that saw her ex-husband jailed for drugging her and recruiting strangers to rape her.
Outside a courthouse in Avignon, France, on Thursday, Ms Pelicot said she waived her right to anonymity “so society could see what was happening”.
The 72-year-old’s ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, was earlier sentenced to 20 years in prison for aggravated rape.
Dominique Pelicot stood accused alongside 50 other men, 46 of whom were found guilty of rape, two of attempted rape, and two of sexual assault.
In a brief appearance outside of court on Thursday, Ms Pelicot made a short statement in which she said she respected the court and the decision it had made.
“I wanted to open the doors of this trial last September so that society could see what was happening – I have never regretted this decision,” she said.
“I have confidence now in our capacity collectively to find a better future in which men and women alike can live harmoniously together with respect and mutual understanding.”
She thanked her family and her lawyers, and said she was now thinking of the “unrecognised victims whose stories often remain in the shadows”.
She said: “In this moment, my first thoughts are with my three children David, Caroline and Florian. I am also thinking about my grandchildren because they are the future and it is also for them that I fought this battle.”
For almost a decade, Ms Pelicot was unknowingly given sedatives by her ex-husband, who admitted to raping her and inviting men he had recruited online to have sex with her in her bed at home while she was unconscious and unaware.
Although Dominique Pelicot admitted the charges against him, many of the other men on trial denied what they did was rape.
Most of the 50 came from towns and villages in a 50km (30 mile) radius of the Pelicots’ own village of Mazan.
Among them were firefighters, lorry drivers, soldiers, security guards, a journalist and a DJ.
Ms Pelicot has attended almost every day of the trial, appearing at the court in her sunglasses just before nine o’clock.
Her decision to waive her anonymity is highly unusual, but she has stood firm at every moment.
“I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too,” she said earlier in the trial.
But she has been clear that behind her facade of strength “lies a field of ruins” and despite the widespread acclaim for what she has done, she is a reluctant hero.
“She keeps repeating, ‘I am normal,’ she does not want to be considered as an icon,” her lawyer Stéphane Babonneau said.
“Women generally have a strength in them that they can’t even imagine and that they have to trust themselves. That’s her message.”