Paris — The Paris prosecutor's office said on Tuesday that French actor Gerard Depardieu was charged in December with rape and sexual assault after authorities revived a 2018 investigation that was initially dropped.

The office told The Associated Press that Depardieu was not detained when he was handed the preliminary charges on December 16.

The prosecutor's office addressed the charges after the case was leaked to French media.

French media reports said the charges relate to allegations made by an actress in her 20s that date back to 2018.

French newspaper Le Parisien and broadcaster BFM TV said the woman alleged that Depardieu assaulted her on August 7 and August 13, 2018 at his home in Paris.

The actress, who has not been named, first filed a complaint with details of alleged rape and assault in August 2018 in the southern French city of Aix-en-Provence.

Depardieu's lawyer Hervé Temime was not immediately available for comment, but he has previously said that the actor "absolutely denies any rape, any sexual assault, any crime.".