Brigitte Macron awarded €8,000 in damages after false trans conspiracy theory

Brigitte Macron has been awarded €8,000 (£6,700/$8,900) in damages against two women who falsely claimed that she is transgender.

Macron, the wife of French president Emmanuel Macron, sued Amandine Roy and Natacha Rey in 2022 after the women posted a YouTube clip in 2021 claiming that she was assigned male at birth.

Roy, an online fortune teller, was seen in the video interviewing self-styled independent journalist Rey for more than four hours, with the pair alleging that the first lady was born a man. They also claimed she was not the mother of her three children.

The video, in which the women claimed to have uncovered a “state lie”, went viral weeks before the 2022 French presidential election, and sparked online rumours among conspiracy theorists and the far right.

According to the baseless rumours, the first lady’s brother Jean-Michel Trogneux had changed gender and assumed the identity of Brigitte.

French newspaper Le Monde reported that Roy and Rey were given a €500 (£420/$550) suspended fine by a court in Paris on Thursday (12 September) and ordered to pay €8,000 in damages to Macron and €5,000(£4,200/$5,500) to Trogneux. The first lady did not attend the trial in June and was not present for the ruling.

In an interview in 2022 she said she had ignored the comments at first, but eventually decided to act after the rumours started affecting her parents and family. Emmanuel Macron addressed the claims earlier this year, saying: “The worst thing is the false information and fabricated scenarios. People eventually believe them and disturb you, even in your intimacy.”

Brigitte Macron’s lawyer Jean Ennochi told reporters after the verdict: “It’s not a victory, it’s a normal application of the law.”

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