Linda Evangelista Reflects on “Abusive Relationship” in Apple TV+ Docuseries ‘The Super Models’: “He Knew Not to Touch My Face”

In Apple TV+‘s new docuseries The Super Models, Linda Evangelista reflects on being in an “abusive relationship.”

In the third episode of the four-part series focused on Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington’s rise to power, Evangelista recalls that difficult time as images appear on the screen of her marriage to Elite Model Management executive Gérald Marie between 1987 and 1993.

“I learned that maybe I was in the wrong relationship,” she says. “It’s easier said than done to leave an abusive relationship. I understand that concept because I lived it. If it was a matter of just saying, ‘I want a divorce, see ya,’ it doesn’t work that way.”

Evangelista suggests that this man was physically violent, saying, as it sounds like her voice is breaking, “He knew not to touch my face, not to touch the moneymaker, you know?”

She adds, “I married him when I was 22 and I got out when I was 27, and he let me out as long as he got everything. But I was safe and I got my freedom.”

In response to Evangelista’s claims, Marie’s lawyer Céline Bekerman said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter that her client “firmly objects to the defamatory and false allegations made against him. He refuses to participate in this dishonest media controversy.”

In 2021, Marie was accused of various acts of alleged sexual assault in the 1980s and 1990s by 15 women. French prosecutors in 2023 closed their investigation into the allegations, saying they exceeded the country’s statute of limitations.

At the time, Evangelista said she believed the women who accused Marie of misconduct.

“Hearing them now, and based on my own experiences, I believe that they are telling the truth,” she said.

And when the charges were dropped, Marie’s attorney said, in a statement obtained by Agence France-Presse, that he “welcomed the closing of this case. The justice system has finally triumphed despite the outrageous media campaign that Gérald Marie has suffered for two years. With this decision, it is now established that Gérald Marie is and will remain innocent.”

In The Super Models, Evangelista reflects on those allegations.

“When I found out that he’s hurt many, many, many women, he’s violated many women,” she says as she appears to be on the verge of tears, “it broke my heart…. I never told my story because I feared,” she says, trailing off. “Thanks to the power of all these women coming forward — bless them, God bless all of them — it gave me the courage now to speak.”

She adds, “I would love that justice be served. I would love for assholes like that to think twice and be afraid. And I would love women to know that they’re not alone.”

In the docuseries, as part of a title card noting the French investigation being closed due to the statute of limitations, the card adds that Marie’s lawyer says, “He denies claims of abuse and adds that he ‘has never committed the slightest act of violence.'”