Brigitte Macron has filed her defamation suit against Natacha Rey, who made bizarre claims that the French first lady was born a man.
The hearing was moved from March 2025 to June 19, 2024, at the request of Macron’s lawyer following Rey’s claims that he was born with the name Jean-Michel Trogneux.
Since the interview with Rey, 48, on a YouTube channel in late 2021, lawyer Jean Ennochi stated that rumors about the 70-year-old wife of French President Emmanuel Macron continued to fuel.
Ennochi therefore requested that the hearing be expedited, as concerns have been raised about how the rumors have spread beyond France and into the United States.
He also said: “In recent weeks, particularly internationally, through Trumpist influencer Candace Owens, who relayed to me, I felt the damage to my clients increasing by the day.”
Brigitte Macron has filed her defamation case against Natacha Rey after claiming that the French first lady was born a man, before transitioning at the age of 30.
Last month, American conservative commentator Candace Owens took to Twitter to promote the controversial theory after briefly speaking about it on an episode of her Candace Owens Podcast.
He said he will “stake his entire professional reputation” on the now-debunked theory that Brigitte Macron was born a man.
The tweet claimed that the First Lady transitioned at the age of 30, as well as making outlandish claims that she did not give birth to any of her three children and that her first husband, a 69-year-old retired banker, had supposedly died. . an inmate in 2020, never existed.
The conspiracy arises from a completely false claim made by the far-right magazine Faits et Documents (Facts and Documents), after Macron, 46, was elected.
But the debate was reignited last month after Emmanuel Macron’s stepdaughter, Tiphaine Auzière, gave an interview to Paris Match in which she addressed claims that her mother Brigitte was born a man.
Auzière was only 10 years old when she discovered that her mother, a teacher, was having a relationship with a student 25 years younger than her.
“I am concerned at the level of society when I hear what is circulating on social media about my mother being a man,” she said.
speaking to Le Nouvel ObsRey said she will not be able to travel in June because she is “very weakened by the cancer.”
His lawyer, Mr. Danglehant, confirmed that on the day of the new hearing he will request a medical certificate, which may be rejected.
It comes after two women, including Rey, who falsely claimed Brigitte Macron was born a man, were hit with reduced “symbolic fines” on appeal, it emerged early last month.
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.”
Details of the strange case centered on Macron’s wife were revived on March 1 after his own daughter spoke publicly about the allegations for the first time.
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.
As the French debated the unconventional personal life of their head of state, MailOnline obtained details of a ruling handed down at the Caen Court of Appeal last June.
It concerned two defendants: Amandine Roy, a 52-year-old clairvoyant, and Rey.
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.
In fact, this is the name of Brigitte’s brother, and Macron was called Brigitte Trogneux before his first marriage.
A judge in Lisieux, Normandy, initially fined the two women the equivalent of £1,700 each after finding them guilty of defamation.
Emmanuel Macron was only 15 years old when he began a relationship with Brigitte Auzière, then married and mother of three, who was 40 years old at the time.
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 Rey 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 Rey and Roy was for invasion of privacy, violation of image rights and violation of personality rights, but the final case was for defamation.
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.”
Pichon added: “This looks like intimidation coming from ultra-protected people.” If the theses he develops are so crazy, why pursue it like this?
“My client is not very rich, at least much less so than those who are angry with 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.
The Elysée Palace has not yet reacted to comments from Tiphaine Auzière, who is promoting her new novel, a legal drama titled ‘Assizes’, in reference to a criminal court.
This was despite lurid headlines across France, such as one in Gala, which read: “Transphobic rumor about Brigitte Macron: why her daughter Tiphaine is worried.”
Emmanuel Macron’s stepdaughter Tiphaine Auzière, 40, told Paris Match: “I am worried about the level of society when I hear what is circulating on social media about my mother being a man.”
“I learned a lot about human nature,” Auzière said in the interview published Thursday, in which she also spoke about her mother’s relationship with Macron, which resulted in her parents’ divorce.
“I know that right now we need to focus on what is essential and move forward regardless of criticism,” he said of transphobic rumors.
‘The attacks, the slander, the trials. It was not yet the era of social media, but we were in a small provincial town. Everything is known.
‘Despite all this, they stood firm. I gained an open mind, the desire to move forward without listening to peripheral noises and I gained greater tolerance.’
Auzière said she was particularly upset that her humiliated father, André-Louis Auzière, was forced to leave the family home in 1994, even though he did not divorce Brigitte until 2006, allowing Macron to marry her a year later. .
“A family separation can be a shame and an opportunity,” said Ms. Auzière. ‘The recomposition can be an enrichment.
“I have a very dear father and stepfather,” he added.