Ten people will stand trial in Paris on Monday over the alleged cyberbullying of France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, accused of spreading online claims that President Emmanuel Macron’s wife is secretly a man.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said the eight men and two women face charges for posting “numerous malicious comments” online about her gender and sexuality, and for referring to the couple’s age gap as “pedophilia.”
The defendants, ages 41 to 60, are described as particularly active on social media, with some of their posts drawing tens of thousands of views. Among them are a self-proclaimed medium and an advertising executive, both accused of playing key roles in amplifying the rumor. The latter’s account on X has since been suspended.
Others include an elected official, a teacher and a computer scientist.
The Macrons have for years been dogged by conspiracy theories alleging that Brigitte was born a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux, who supposedly later took the name Brigitte as a transgender woman. Jean-Michel Trogneux is actually Brigitte’s brother.
The two-day trial in Paris comes after the Macrons filed a defamation suit in July in a Delaware court. Their lawyer said they will seek “substantial” damages from U.S. conservative commentator Candace Owens if she continues claiming that Brigitte is a man.
Owens, a right-wing political commentator whose YouTube channel has about 4.5 million subscribers, was denied visas to New Zealand and Australia in 2024 over remarks in which she denied Nazi medical experiments on Jews in concentration camps during World War II.
A verdict in the Paris case is expected at a later date.
In September 2024, Brigitte and Jean-Michel Trogneux won a defamation suit against two women who were sentenced by a Paris court to fines and damages for spreading the claims about the first lady online. A Paris appeals court overturned that ruling in July. Brigitte and her brother have since appealed the decision to France’s highest court.
The Macrons, married since 2007, first met at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher. Brigitte Macron, 24 years her husband’s senior, was then known as Brigitte Auzière, a married mother of three.
Emmanuel Macron, 47, has been France’s president since 2017.
