Trolls found guilty of cyberbullying Brigitte Macron after spreading rumour she’s trans
Trolls who spread rumours that Brigitte Macron, the wife of Emmanuel Macron, was a ‘man’ have been found guilty of cyberbullying.
Since 2017, Emmanuel Macron’s wife has faced online accusations that she is a trans woman and a paedophile.
The claims often focused on the perceived age gap between Macron, 48, and Brigitte, 72.
A Paris court today found 10 people guilty, handing down eight-month suspended sentences and cyberbullying training course requirements.
The judge pointed to ‘particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious’ comments about Brigitte being trans.
They said the defendants, who included eight men and two women, aged 41 to 65, acted with clear intent to harm Brigitte.
Two of the defendants, ‘journalist’ Natacha Rey and online fortune-teller Amandine Roy, had been found guilty of slander in 2024 for claiming that France’s first lady wasn’t real.
They claimed, without evidence, that her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux had changed gender and started using her name.
Brigitte did not appear at the trial hearings in October but told the authorities the claims ‘strongly affected’ her.
Tiphaine Auzière, 41, Brigitte’s younger daughter, told the trial that the phoney allegations harmed the French first lady’s health.
She said: ‘She’s constantly having to pay attention to what she wears, how she holds herself because she knows that her image can be distorted.’
Macron first met Brigitte when she was a teacher at his secondary school.
They married in 2007 when the future French president was 29 and she was 54.
In a separate case in the US, the Macrons are pursuing a defamation suit against right-wing influencer Candace Owens.
The former communications director of the political organisation Turning Point USA repeatedly voiced conspiracy theories about Brigitte’s gender on her podcast and social media.
In March 2024, she posted that she would stake her ‘entire professional reputation’ on her belief that Brigitte ‘is, in fact, a man’.
The complaint said: ‘Since then, Owens has used this false
statement to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety and make money.’
She also alleged that Brigitte stole another person’s identity and is committing incest in her marriage with the French president, according to the 219-page filing.
The podcaster printed t-shirts with a spoof cover of TIME magazine, labelling her ‘man of the year’.
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