Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski poses with his 1977 rape victim Samantha Geimer

Film director Roman Polanski’s wife has shared a photo of her husband with the woman he raped in 1977, when he was 43 and she was only 13.

Emmanuelle Seigner, a French actress, captioned the photo posted to Instagram on Friday: “Thanks Samantha.”

The image shows Polanski, 89, with Samantha Geimer, 60 – believed to be the first time the pair have met since the attack.

It was not clear when the photo was taken, but Geimer agreed to speak to Seigner – Polanski’s wife of 34 years – for an interview with Le Point magazine. The interview was the cover story for the April 13 issue.

Samantha Geimer (right) spoke to actress and singer Emmanuelle Seigner, wife of Roman Polanski, for the April 13 issue of French magazine Le Point

In the interview, Geimer said she had long forgiven Polanski, who became a pariah after being accused of drugging and raping her.

He pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor and was due to serve a prison sentence in California, but fled to Europe, where he has remained ever since.

“Let’s be very clear, what happened with Polanski was never a big deal to me,” Geimer told Seigner.

‘I didn’t even know it was illegal, that someone could get arrested for it.

“I was fine, I’m still fine, and for this thing to be made into something bigger weighs heavily on me.

“It’s a terrible burden to constantly have to repeat that it was nothing.”

Geimer was photographed by Polanski at Jack Nicholson’s home on Mulholland Drive. Polanski gave her quaaludes and penetrated her anally.

Six women, including Geimer, accused the French-Polish film director of sexual assault.

But in recent years, Geimer has chosen to forget the past and defend Polanski, who fled to France in 1978.

Geimer told Seigner in the interview, “Everyone should know by now that Roman has served his sentence. That was… long, if you want my opinion.

“No one from my side wanted him to go to jail, but he did and it was enough. He paid his debt to society. There you go, end of story.’

Polanski, pictured leaving court in 1977, has been accused of sexual assault by several women

Geimer, who is married to David Geimer and lives in the US, wrote a book about her experience in 2013 and said she and Polanski occasionally exchanged emails.

“All these years, our lawyers have communicated,” she said at the time.

‘We’re not buddies. But I mean, I’ve been in touch with him a little bit via email. Just personal things, nothing worth talking about.’

She said he emailed her in 2009 after a documentary about his trial aired.

“I want you to know how sorry I am for affecting your life like this,” he wrote.

The film director fled to France in 1978 after an arrest warrant was issued against him.

He had previously pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

Geimer brushed off the 1977 attack in her Le Point interview.

She claimed that different attitudes to sex in the 1970s meant “sex was recreational, sometimes transactional.”

She added: ‘I remember the time when I started working – I became a model when I was 14 years old.

‘All the girls, the models, slept with the photographers and I was no exception. But sex was normal, a natural part of life. There wasn’t all this drama, all this darkness around sex.”

Polanski would serve just 42 days in prison for the attack.

After entering a plea, he saw allegations of drug rape, perversion, sodomy, lewd acts involving a 14-year-old child, and providing a controlled substance to a minor all dropped.

When he learned that he was likely to be jailed, he became a fugitive from justice and fled to France hours before he was due to be formally sentenced.

The Oscar winner has since avoided countries extraditing him to the United States, and he still has an outstanding warrant for his arrest.

Samantha Geimer was only 13 when she was intoxicated with alcohol and pills before being raped by Polanski

Geimer previously accused Polanski of sexual assault, but has since defended his actions

At the time, Roman Polanski, photographed in May 2018, fled to France in 1978 after learning he would be jailed the previous year for the rape of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer

The extended interview with Polanski’s wife also touched on the limitations of the #MeToo movement, with Geimer lashing out at attorney Gloria Allred, who has taken on several notable sexual assault and women’s rights cases.

“(Allred) just shrinks women to exploit their pain,” she said.

“I’m sorry, but that’s not a defense.”

Siegner said that “feminine desire has been denied, destroyed.”

Geimer continues: ‘It’s sad for women, but especially for young women.

“Imagine growing up in this day and age, that seems awful to me. I don’t see what’s so feminist about claiming victimhood.

Geimer, writer and former actress, has repeatedly defended the director in recent years

“Today, women’s pain is valued, and there’s an entire industry that exploits the suffering. Those who participate do not know what they are getting into.’

Geimer said she initially did not feel victimized after the infamous attack, only later feeling victimized after being hounded by the press and repeated lawsuits.

“If anyone had anything to say about Roman, about assault, 1977 would have been a really good year to help me,” she continued.

‘Because with my family we couldn’t even leave our house! Everyone attacked us.

“Nobody came up next to me and said, ‘Hey, you know what? I think she’s telling the truth, because something similar happened to me.’ It’s not like the story was private, it was in newspapers all over the world!

“But no, no one, not one of the women who claims to have had a problem with Roman today, has bothered to contact me.

‘And now, now that they urgently need to unpack everything? Who are they kidding.’

Although Polanski is still wanted by law enforcement, Geimer insisted that the charges against him be cleared and that he be allowed to return to the United States.

“People pretend to act in the name of justice, or because they support me, but it’s the opposite of what I want and everything I say I want,” she said.

“They consider themselves morally superior, when they simply take the easy way out.

“The extradition attempt, the fact that Roman was arrested like this, it was so unfair and so against justice.

“He did everything that was asked of him until the situation got out of hand. He had no choice but to flee.

“Anyone who thinks he deserves to be in prison is wrong. That is not the case today and it was not the case yesterday.’