Trolls found guilty of cyberbullying Brigitte Macron after spreading rumour she’s trans | News World
Trolls who spread rumors that Brigitte Macron, Emmanuel Macron’s wife, was a “man”, have been found guilty of cyberstalking.
Since 2017, Emmanuel Macron’s wife has been accused online of being a trans woman and pedophile.
The claims often focused on the perceived age gap between Macron, 48, and Brigitte, 72.
The Paris court today found ten people guilty, sentencing them to eight months in prison and to undergo training on cyberbullying.
The judge highlighted “particularly degrading, insulting and malicious” comments about Brigitte being trans.
They said the defendants, including eight men and two women, aged between 41 and 65, had acted with the clear intention of harming Brigitte.
Two of the accused, the “journalist” Natacha Rey and the online clairvoyant Amandine Roy, were found guilty of defamation in 2024 for asserting that the First Lady of France was not real.
They claimed, without proof, that her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux had changed sex and started using her name.
Brigitte did not appear at the trial hearings in October, but told authorities that the allegations had “strongly affected” her.
Tiphaine Auzière, 41, Brigitte’s younger daughter, told the trial that the false allegations had harmed the French first lady’s health.
She said: “She constantly has to be careful about what she wears, how she carries herself, because she knows her image can be distorted.”
Macron first met Brigitte when she was a teacher at his high school.
They married in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was 54.
In another case in the United States, the Macrons are filing a defamation action against right-wing influencer Candace Owens.
The former communications director for political organization Turning Point USA has repeatedly expressed conspiracy theories about Brigitte’s gender on her podcast and social media.
In March 2024, she announced 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 fake
statement to promote its independent platform, gain notoriety and make money.
She also alleged that Brigitte impersonated another person and committed incest in her marriage to the French president, according to the 219-page filing.
The podcaster printed t-shirts with a fake TIME magazine cover, calling her “man of the year.”
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