Brigitte Macron, France's First Lady, is once again battling persistent and demonstrably false claims about her gender identity. In a significant escalation of her legal fight, Mrs. Macron, 72, has now taken her case to France's highest appeals court, the Court de Cassation, following a recent setback in a lower court. The heart of this extraordinary legal tussle lies in a bizarre and widely circulated conspiracy theory: the assertion that Brigitte Macron was born a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux.
This claim is particularly audacious given that Jean-Michel Trogneux is, in fact, Brigitte Macron's brother. The disinformation campaign, which has circulated online for years, gained significant traction through a particular YouTube video posted in December 2021. In this four-hour-long video, defendant Amandine Roy, a self-proclaimed spiritual medium, interviewed Natacha Rey, who describes herself as an independent journalist. Rey, in the video, spoke at length about a purported "state lie" and "scam" she claimed to have uncovered, alleging that Jean-Michel Trogneux had undergone gender transition to become Brigitte, subsequently marrying Emmanuel Macron, who would later become President.
This claim is particularly audacious given that Jean-Michel Trogneux is, in fact, Brigitte Macron's brother. The disinformation campaign, which has circulated online for years, gained significant traction through a particular YouTube video posted in December 2021. In this four-hour-long video, defendant Amandine Roy, a self-proclaimed spiritual medium, interviewed Natacha Rey, who describes herself as an independent journalist. Rey, in the video, spoke at length about a purported "state lie" and "scam" she claimed to have uncovered, alleging that Jean-Michel Trogneux had undergone gender transition to become Brigitte, subsequently marrying Emmanuel Macron, who would later become President.
Brigitte Macron initially filed a libel complaint against the two women, seeking redress for the damage to her reputation. A lower court, in September of last year, initially ruled in her favour, ordering the women to pay a sum of €8,000 euros in damages to Brigitte Macron and €5,000 to her brother, who was also directly implicated by the false claims. However, in a surprising turn of events, the Paris appeals court recently overturned these earlier convictions, granting the defendants a reprieve.
