Two women who spread false information about Brigitte Macron must pay her eight thousand euros in damages. At the end of 2021, a recording was released in which the two spent four hours theorizing that the current First Lady of France was born a man.
The verdict was handed down on Thursday. Two women were found guilty of defaming Brigitte Macron, the president's wife France Emmanuel Macron by spreading false information that she was a transgender person. A Paris court decided to pay eight thousand euros in damages to the first lady, as well as five thousand euros to her brother. A suspended fine of 500 euros was also imposed.
False theory about Brigitte Macron
One of the women punished is self-proclaimed “independent journalist” Natacha Rey, and the other is YouTube fortune-teller Amandine Roy. In December 2021, in a video posted on the platform, they claimed that Macron was born a man, Jean-Michel Trogneux, and later had a sex change. In fact, Trogneux is Macron’s maiden name, and Jean-Michel Trogneux is the first lady’s brother.
For more than four hours in the recording, the women discussed the theory, claiming to have uncovered a “state lie” and “fraud,” Le Monde reports. They showed photos of Brigitte and her family, talked about alleged surgeries she had undergone and argued that she was not the mother of any of her three children.
The false theory has made waves in the weeks leading up to the 2022 presidential election, primarily on social media in France, spread mostly by far-right supporters and opponents of Macron.
The first lady's lawyers filed a lawsuit a month after the video was published. During a hearing in June 2024, attorney Jean Ennochi emphasized the “enormous” harm and prejudice against his client that the disinformation had caused. In March 2024 Emmanuel Macronreferring to the case, said that the false theory hurt him and affected his private life.
Main image source: LUDOVIC MARIN / POOL/PAP/EPA