The fake news about Brigitte Macron that has gone around the world

ParisWhen Emmanuel Macron won the presidential election in 2017, the fake newsbegan to circulate in France: his partner, Brigitte Macron, was a transgender woman. Other first ladies or candidates, such as Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Begoña Gómez herself, have also been victims of the same sexist and transphobic rumor. Nothing new. Neither the Élysée Palace nor the media echoed it. But in 2021, everything changed.

In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, a woman who presents herself as a "self-taught independent journalist" under the pseudonym Natacha Rey, whom no one knows and who has never published anything, begins to spread her own theory about Brigitte Macron on social media, which was rumored before she got married. According to Rey, the President of the Republic's wife is actually his brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, and had undergone a sex change in the 1980s.

The bizarre and sexist conspiracy theory holds that Jean-Michel Trogneux had a sister named Brigitte. Thus, Jean-Michel stole his dead sister's identity and trafficked her. There is no evidence to support this fantasy, and plenty to prove the opposite. First, Brigitte Macron is the biological mother of his three children, whom she gave birth to. And second, Jean-Michel Trogneux exists, and there are many photos and videos of him with Brigitte Macron over the years. But Rey and the followers of the theory don't care.

Viral video

At the end of 2021, the transphobic conspiracy theory took on unimaginable proportions after a woman who claims to be a psychic, known as Amandine Roy, interviewed Natacha Rey on her YouTube channel. Both are linked to far-right ideologies and conspiracy theories. The video, which contains transphobic comments, went viral. "It's a man disguised as a woman. He probably had surgery and everything," claims the alleged journalist. Roy also refers to pedophilia when talking about the The age difference between Macron and the French first lady, who are 24 years apart and fell in love when the president was only 15..

Previously, Rey had attempted to publish the fake newsin serious media such as Mediapart. No one paid attention. Following the viral video, internet users with thousands of followers, such as publicist Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, known online by the pseudonym Zoé Sagan, spread the fake news as if it were entirely true. fake news It grew, it was shared by millions of people, and Roy and the other conspiracy theorists – called Brigitologists–they try so hard to get someone to pay attention to them in the United States –they even write press releases in English that they distribute in the US– that the theory crosses the Atlantic.influencer Candace Owens, linked to Donald Trump's orbit and supported by conspiracy theories, makes it her own.

In her videos, Owens shamelessly calls for the President of the Republic to resign for allegedly lying about his wife. "He's lied more than once in the French village. He's harassed journalists, you're a monster!" she tells him. Her YouTube channel has five and a half million subscribers, on X she has seven million followers, and on Instagram, more than six million.

The President's reaction

It was then that President Macron and his wife decided to speak publicly and very briefly about the issue. "It's a lie," Brigitte Macron simply stated on one occasion. On another occasion, the president admitted that the scale of the issue was affecting them. Macron denounced before journalists "this false information and these scenarios set up by madmen, people who end up believing it and invading your privacy."

After years of ignoring the rumors, the presidential couple changed their strategy and decided to take the case to court, both in the United States and in France. While in the United States they must prove with scientific evidence that Brigitte Macron is biologically a woman—the trial is pending—in France, a trial began this Monday against 10 people for online harassment for spreading the sexist conspiracy theory. Among those appearing in the dock are Natacha Rey, Amandine Roy, and Zoé Sagan. They face sentences of up to two years in prison.

Last year, a defamation trial was held in France against Rey and Roy, which Brigitte Macron won at first instance, but the defendants were acquitted on appeal. The court ruled that calling someone transgender does not constitute defamation, even if it's not true.