A court has ordered two women to pay €8,000 in damages to France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, after they falsely claimed she was a man.
In December 2021, Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy broadcast unfounded rumours online alleging the first lady, formerly Brigitte Trogneux, had never existed and that her brother Jean-Michel had changed gender and assumed that identity.
A Paris court on Thursday found Rey and Roy guilty of slander, ordering them to pay €8,000 in damages to the president’s wife, and €5,000 to Jean-Michel Trogneux.
The defendents were also given a suspended fine of €500.
Brigitte Macron, 71, had filed a libel complaint against the two women after their claim went viral, triggering conspiracy theories notably among the far right.
Macron did not attend the trial in June and was not present for the ruling.
Rey was ill during the trial, but did not manage to have it postponed.
France's Brigitte Macron to sue over claims she was born a man
Disinformation
Roy, an online fortune-teller, interviewed Rey, a self-described independent journalist, for four hours on her YouTube channel in December 2021.
The women discussed the unsubstantiated rumour that Brigitte Macron had undergone gender reassignment, with Rey claiming to have uncovered a “state lie” and “scam”.
The claim went viral just weeks before the 2022 presidential election, spreading even to the US where Macron was derided in a now deleted YouTube video before the November midterm elections.
The claim was spread by accounts often opposed to President Emmanuel Macron, including followers of the QAnon conspiracy movement and the far right.
It also led to more serious accusations of child abuse brought against France's first lady.
French intelligence 'unmasks' QAnon conspiracy theorists
'Massive' prejudice
Brigitte Macron's lawyers sued for libel just a month after the video was posted online.
During the hearing in June this year, lawyer Jean Ennochi insisted on the "massive" prejudice the disinformation had caused his client. "It exploded everywhere".
Reacting to Thursday's verdict, Ennochi told AFP news agency: "It's not a victory, it's a normal application of the law."
The former US first lady Michelle Obama, the US vice-president and presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, and the New Zealand former prime minister Jacinda Ardern have also been the target of disinformation about their gender or sexuality in efforts to mock or humiliate them.
As news of the ruling came though on Thursday, Macron made her Netflix debut playing herself in the hit series Emily in Paris.
(with newswires)
