PARIS — A French court convicted two women of libel for spreading transphobic rumors about France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron, according to local media reports.
In December 2021, the two women — one posing as an independent journalist and the other one as a clairvoyant — said in a YouTube video that Emmanuel Macron’s wife was in fact born as a male named Jean-Michel Trogneux (which is the actual name of Brigitte Macron’s brother). They also claimed that Brigitte Macron’s first husband never existed and that she didn’t carry her three children.
On Tuesday, the judicial court in Lisieux fined both women €2,000 each, after Brigitte Macron and her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux decided to sue them for libel.
During the presidential campaign in 2022, as Emmanuel Macron was seeking re-election, the transphobic rumor was picked up by far-right fringe groups, Yellow Jackets sympathizers and anti-vax activists, according to Le Monde. It also echoed similar transphobic narratives targeting former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama.
