France’s first lady has taken her case against two women over claims she used to be a man to the highest appeals court after a lower court cleared them of defamation
On Thursday, July 11, the Paris appeals court overturned earlier convictions against the two women for spreading false claims – that went viral online – that Brigitte Macron, 72, used to be a man.
Disinformation on Macron’s gender has circulated on social media for years. Her 24-year age difference with President Emmanuel Macron has also attracted a lot of comments
Brigitte Macron filed a libel complaint against the two women after they posted a YouTube video in December 2021, alleging she had once been a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux – who is actually Brigitte Macron’s brother.
In the video, defendant Amandine Roy, a self-proclaimed spiritual medium, interviewed Natacha Rey, a self-described independent journalist, for four hours on her YouTube channel.
Rey spoke about the ‘state lie’ and ‘scam’ she claimed to have uncovered that Jean-Michel Trogneux had changed gender to become Brigitte, and then married the future president.
The claim went viral, including among conspiracy theorists in the United States.
Ms Roy and Ms Rey had appeared on a four-hour YouTube video in December 2021 in which they claimed that Brigitte was in fact born as a baby boy called Jean-Michel Trogneux in 1953.
This is in fact the name of Brigitte’s brother, and Ms Macron was called Brigitte Trogneux before her first marriage.
The defendants also claimed that Brigitte’s first husband, André-Louis Auzière, had never actually existed before his reported death in 2020, aged 68.
A judge sitting at Lisieux, in Normandy, originally fined the two women the equivalent of £1700 each, after finding them both guilty of libel.
Following earlier appeals, Roy’s fine was reduced to £850, while Rey had £1300 of her £1700 fine suspended, meaning she had to pay just £400.
Now, neither will have to pay anything, and they will be able to repeat the allegations against Ms Macron.
Maud Marian, defence barrister for Roy, said: ‘We’re acquitted!’, while François Danglehant, for Rey, also expressed great pleasure at the judgement.
The two women, who were not present when the judgment was announced, were sued for defamation by Ms Macron in January 2022.
Thursday’s court ruling states that the 18 passages of the video under consideration ‘do not constitute defamation’, and instead represent ‘good faith’ free speech.