AceShowbiz - Roman Polanski has accused the media of "trying to make (him) into a monster", and admitted the rape allegations against him have caused his wife and children "enormous suffering".

The director was arrested in 1977 and charged with raping 13-year-old Samantha Geimer. He pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of unlawful sex with a minor and served 42 days behind bars, but fled the U.S. after learning the judge was planning to renege on the plea deal and hand him a much longer sentence.

He has subsequently been accused of sexual assault or rape by several other women, including British actress Charlotte Lewis, who claims he raped her in 1983 when she was 16 - allegations he denies. Actress Valentine Monnier also accused Polanski of rape in French newspaper Le Parisien last month (November 2019), which the filmmaker also strenuously denied.

Speaking about the allegations and the media's reporting of them during an interview with the Paris Match, Polanski said: "For years (the media) has been trying to make me into a monster."

And it's not just the movie mogul that the accusations are hurting. Polanski added that his wife Emmanuelle Seigner and their children Morgane, Paul and Elvis are "suffering enormously", explaining: "They are insulted and threatened on social media."

Asked about Monnier's allegations, Polanski called them "absurd" and insisted he "barely" remembered the actress, who claimed he beat and raped her in 1975 when she was at his resort in Gstaad, Switzerland.

"And I obviously have no memory of what she's saying, since it's wrong. I absolutely deny it," he said. "She says a friend invited her to spend a few days at home, but she does not remember who it was! It is easy to accuse when everything has been prescribed for decades, and when it is certain that there can be no judicial procedure to exculpate me."

As for Monnier's allegation that he beat her, Polanski called it "crazy", and added: "I do not hit women!".