We were shocked when Gerard Depardieu claimed he could drink more than 12 bottles of wine a day but nothing prepared us for what the 65-year-old French actor would reveal in his autobiography.

Gerard Depardieu
Gerard Depardieu made a number of shocking revelations in his autobiography.

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Extracts from his upcoming autobiography, That's the Way it Was (Ca C'est Fait Comme Ca), were published in numerous newspapers and media outlets on Sunday (5th October). 

Depardieu was born in Châteauroux in central France and was one of five children in a poor family. He was involved in crime from a young age and moved to Paris when he was 16. He continued his life of petty crime but soon became involved in the theatre and quickly became established as one of France's lead actors. But his autobiography is a shocking tell all which goes far beyond the basic facts. 

Here are five of the most shocking revelations:

5. Depardieu claims his mother Lilette never wanted him and attempted to abort him in the womb using a knitting needle. As the Independent reports, his mother had every intention of leaving his father and thought the process would be simpler if she was not bearing his child. Depardieu wrote "I survived all the violence that my poor mother inflicted on herself with knitting needles and things. The third child that she didn't want, was me, Gérard. I survived!"

4. Depardieu has a close friendship with Russian premier Vladimir Putin, which is certainly controversial in the West. Putin has granted him Russian citizenship and Depardieu described why he and Putin are kindred spirits. Depardieu wrote, as Yahoo reports, "We could have both become hoodlums. I think he immediately liked my hooligan side. the fact that I had occasionally been picked up off the pavement dead drunk." 

Gerard Depardieu
Gerard Depardieu at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010.

3. Depardieu had a difficult relationship with his son Guillaume who died in 2008 at the age of 37, as the Independent reports. Guillaume's life, in many respects, mirrored his father's as he served prison sentences (Depardieu had a brief three month stint in his teens) and was estranged from his father. Depardieu writes of their relationship: "I took a long time to understand Guillaume with his demands and his suffering, and I didn't know how to respond. I could never find the words."

2. To make ends meet prior to his acting career, Depardieu would often turn to pretty crime including car theft (for which he was jailed), pick-pocketing and even grave robbing. As Yahoo reports, Depardieu would occasionally help an acquaintance dig up corpses in order to steal the jewellery and shoes they were buried in.

1. The Cyrano de Bergerac actor also described how he was employed as a male prostitute when he was just 10 years old. As the Mail reports, Depardieu wrote how he began to work on the streets at a young age because he could pass for a teenager of fifteen. He also soon discovered he was attractive to men and wrote 'I've known since I was very young that I please homosexuals' and when approached he "would ask them for money."

Read More: Gerard Depardieu Elects Drinking On Skyke Over Edinburgh Festival.

Gerard Depardieu
Gerard Depardieu at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.