Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanual Macron, has been awarded €8,000 in damages after two women made claims ‘France’s first lady’ is transgender.
Amandine Roy and Natacha Rey had posted a YouTube video in December 2021 alleging the French president’s wife had once been a man named Jean-Michel. The video subsequently went viral just weeks before the 2022 presidential election and prompted Macron to file a libel complaint.
Posts spread on social media claiming the first lady, formerly Brigitte Trogneux, had never existed and that her brother Jean-Michel had changed gender and assumed that identity.
The women have since been ordered to pay a total of €8,000 (£6,750) in damages to the president’s wife, and €5,000 to her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux. They were also given a suspended fine of €500.