Two French women have been convicted of slander for spreading false claims about the country’s First Lady, Brigitte Macron. In a December 2021 online broadcast, Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy perpetuated unfounded rumors, suggesting that Brigitte Macron was transgender and that she did not exist, instead asserting her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, had undergone a gender change.
The court ordered the defendants to pay €8,000 in damages to Brigitte Macron and €5,000 to her brother. The controversy erupted when the women’s allegations quickly gained traction on social media, fueling conspiracy theories particularly among far-right factions.
Roy, an internet fortune-teller, and Rey, self-proclaimed independent journalist, spent four hours discussing these baseless claims in a YouTube video. The accusations intensified just before France’s 2022 presidential election, gaining momentum from accounts critical of President Emmanuel Macron and various fringe groups.
Following the video’s release, Brigitte Macron’s legal team moved promptly, filing a libel lawsuit just a month later. “The prejudice suffered is considerable and widespread,” stated her lawyer, Jean Ennochi. He emphasized that the court’s ruling should be viewed as a standard enforcement of the law, rather than a personal victory.
This incident marks yet another chapter in the online harassment faced by Mrs. Macron since her husband took office in 2017, with previous trolling primarily focusing on their significant age difference.
