French film star Catherine Deneuve said she stood by her signing an open letter in Le Monde this week bashing the #MeToo movement but apologised if she had offended victims of sexual assault, in an opinion published on the website of daily Liberation on Sunday.

"I warmly greet all the victims of these hideous acts who might have felt attacked by that letter which appeared in Le Monde. It is to them and them alone that I offer my apologies," the 74-year-old actress said.