French President Emmanuel Macron has spoken out for the first time against claims that his wife was born a man, saying the rumors were “false and invented”.
Macron, 47, expressed anger and frustration over continued speculation about Brigitte Macron, 70, whom he married in 2007.
“The worst thing is the false information and invented scenarios,” Macron said. “People end up believing them and they bother you, even in your privacy.”
The president spoke Friday on International Women’s Day, after inscribing the guaranteed right to abortion into France’s constitution.
She said the transgender claims about Macron were typical of the misogynistic online attacks that women have to endure every day.
Two women who claimed the first lady was born a man were punished with reduced “symbolic fines” on appeal last June.
In turn, both claimed to have been subjected to “intimidation by the authorities” when “ultra-protected” members of the Paris establishment tried to cover up a “state secret.”
President Macron with his wife, Brigitte Trogneux, in Paris on February 22, 2017.
Tiphaine Auzière, pictured in 2022, told Paris Match magazine: “I am worried about the level of society when I hear what is circulating on social media about my mother being a man.”
Details of the bizarre case were revived after his own daughter spoke publicly about the allegations for the first time.
Tiphaine Auzière, 40, told Paris Match magazine: “I am worried about the level of society when I hear what is circulating on social media about my mother being a man.”
Auzière also spoke of how hurt she was after discovering, when she was 10, that her mother, a teacher, was dating teenager Emmanuel Macron.
The future politician was only 15 years old when he began a relationship with Brigitte Auzière, then married and mother of three, who was then 40 years old and taught theater at La Providence secondary school in Amiens, northern France.
Those who spread the transgender rumors were Amandine Roy, a 52-year-old clairvoyant, and Natacha Rey, 48, who calls herself an independent journalist.
The two appeared in a four-hour YouTube video in December 2021 in which they claimed that Brigitte was born as a baby named Jean-Michel Trogneux in 1953.
This is the name of Brigitte’s brother, and Macron was called Brigitte Trogneux before his first marriage.
The defendants also claimed that Brigitte’s first husband, André-Louis Auzière, had never existed before his death in 2020, at the age of 68.
A judge in Lisieux, Normandy, initially fined the two women the equivalent of £1,700 each after finding them guilty of defamation.
But following appeals, Roy was fined just £850, and Rey had £1,300 suspended from his £1,700 fine, meaning he had to pay just £400.
Among the witnesses called to appear in court were Catherine and Jean-Louis Auzière, a childless couple living in Deauville, Normandy.
Jean-Louis Auzière was Brigitte Macron’s uncle, when Brigitte was married to André-Louis Auzière.
Natacha Ray claimed that Jean-Louis Auzière had falsified administrative documents to hide a “state secret”: his wife had given birth to Brigitte’s three children, including Tiphaine Auzière.
But Jean-Louis Auzière told the court: “I worked with Brigitte until the late 1980s, I can confirm to you that she is not a man.”
The original complaint against Ray and Roy was for invasion of privacy, violation of image rights and violation of personality rights, but the final case was for defamation.
The French president’s wife (left), Brigitte Macron, and France’s Secretary of State for Veterans and Remembrance, Patricia Miralles, attend a visit to the national Invalids Institution on February 29.
French President Emmanuel Macron (R), French First Lady Brigitte Macron (L) and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (Center) at the Elysee Palace in Paris on February 27, 2024.
Frédéric Pichon, Rey’s defense lawyer, said his investigation into Macron had been “carried out in good faith” and in accordance with Article 10 of the European Court of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to freedom of expression.
He expressed outrage that his client was “taken into police custody twice during the case”, and said: “I am appalled by the disproportionate means used by the authorities to silence her.”
All parties to the case accepted the “symbolic fines” imposed on appeal as a final settlement to what had become a huge embarrassment for Mr and Mrs Macron.
Transphobic rumors about Ms Macron were taken up by the far right in 2022, while the president was campaigning for re-election.
Groups such as the Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes) and those protesting against Covid vaccines used these claims to attack Macron.
The video produced by Rey and Roy has since been removed from YouTube.