Two women who spread a rumor online that French President Brigitte Macron’s wife was a transgender woman, a hoax that went viral in the United States, were convicted Thursday by a Paris court of defamation.
The two women were sentenced to a suspended fine of 500 euros, as well as to pay a total of 8,000 euros in damages to Brigitte Macron, and 5,000 euros to her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux, both civil parties in the trial, which was held last June.
Brigitte Macron, who was absent from the trial, was also not present for the decision.
At the heart of the case is a fake news story that has regularly resurfaced on social media since the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017, according to which Brigitte Macron, née Trogneux, never existed, but that her brother Jean-Michel took on this identity after changing sex.
The two women had largely contributed to making it known in 2021, via a long “interview” of more than four hours where the first, the “medium” Amandine Roy, questioned on her YouTube channel the second, Natacha Rey, “self-taught independent journalist” on the discovery of this “deception”, “scam”, this “state lie”.
Natacha Rey, who was ill, was unable to attend the hearing and had a request to postpone the trial refused. She was not present for the deliberations, which attracted nearly a hundred people, many of whom remained outside the courtroom due to lack of space.
In the four-hour interview broadcast on YouTube, the two women shared photos of Brigitte Macron and her family, discussed surgical procedures she had undergone, claimed she was not the mother of her three children and gave personal information about her brother.
Brigitte Macron had filed a complaint for public defamation with civil action on January 31, 2022, leading to a referral (almost automatic in press law) of the two women to the criminal court.
The false information had a greater impact after the YouTube video, even being exported internationally – notably and again recently in the United States, where it went viral on the far right, in the middle of the presidential campaign.
Several female politicians around the world have already been the victims of transphobic fake news, such as former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, current US Vice President Kamala Harris and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
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