French First Lady Brigitte Macron awarded €8,000 in damages over false transgender claim. What is the case all about?

As they say, do not believe everything you read on the internet. A conspiracy theory started by two women during a podcast gathered air and has now cost them a hefty amount.

Two women have now been ordered by a French court to pay €8,000 (Rs 7.45 lakh) in damages to French First Lady Brigitte Macron after they circulated theories that Macron was a transgender.

Aired by the far-right supporters, the rumour turned into a massive debate online. It reached such an extent that the 71-year-old Macron, who had been ignoring the conspiracy theories, had to knock at the doors of the courts to put a stop to it.

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After a long silence on the issue, President Emmanuel Macron addressed the rumors in March and said that the false claims had hurt him and his wife and impacted his family life.

As Brigitte Macron gets the justice that she deserves, let us take a closer look at the case.

All about the case

The matter began in December 2021 when a self-proclaimed spiritual medium Amandine Roy, interviewed a self-described independent journalist Natacha Rey for four hours on her YouTube channel. In the video, Rey spoke about the “state lie” and “scam” that she claimed to have uncovered alleging that the French president’s wife was once a man named Jean-Michel.

As per a report by Le Monde, throughout the interview, the women showed pictures of Brigitte Macron and her family, how she had undergone surgeries and also claimed that she was not the mother of three children.

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Social media response to the video

The video spread like wildfire within hours of being uploaded. Posts spread on social media claiming that the First Lady, formerly Brigitte Trogneux, had never existed and that her brother Jean-Michel had changed gender and assumed that identity.

The claim went viral just weeks before the 2022 French presidential election. The disinformation even spread to the United States where Brigitte Macron was attacked in a now-deleted YouTube video ahead of the November elections.

The court’s order

On Thursday (September 12), a French court ordered Roy and Rey to pay a total of €8,000 (Rs 7.45 lakh) in damages to the president’s wife, and €5,000 (Rs 4.65 lakh) to her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux as damages. They were also handed a suspended fine of €500 (Rs 46,000).

Macron had filed a libel complaint against two women in 2021. While Rey was ill during the trial, she could not manage to have it postponed.

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Speaking to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Macron’s lawyer Jean Ennochi said, “It’s not a victory, it’s a normal application of the law.” According to Le Monde, at the hearing in June, he had insisted on the “enormous” damage caused by this fake news, which he said spread “all over” the world. “In view of all these reprisals,” from now on, “we are systematically pursuing” legal action he said, with legal proceedings underway “in France and abroad.”

Several female politicians have been the target of disinformation about their gender or sexuality. This includes Former US First Lady Michelle Obama, US Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris and New Zealand ex-PM Jacinda Ardern.

Meanwhile, Brigitte Macron made her Netflix debut playing herself in the hit series Emily in Paris. The show’s star Lily Collins told Elle magazine the idea came to her and programme creator Darren Star when they met the French First Lady at the Elysee Palace in December 2022.

With inputs from agencies