Brigitte Macron, the wife of the French President, has filed an appeal with the French Supreme Court of Cassation after the Paris Court of Appeal last Thursday acquitted two women who spread online rumors that she is a transgender person, her lawyer confirmed to the French agency AFP.
Last week, the appeals court overturned an earlier ruling against the two women who claimed that Brigitte Macron, 72, was actually born as a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux — which is, in fact, the name of her brother.
Macron filed a defamation lawsuit against them after they published a four-hour video on YouTube in December 2021, in which they claimed that “the state participated in a lie” and a “deception” that Jean-Michel changed gender and became Brigitte, who later married Emmanuel Macron. The video showed photos of Brigitte Macron and her family, speculated about alleged surgeries, claimed she was not the biological mother of her three children, and revealed private details about her brother. The video went viral, especially among conspiracy theorists in the USA.
The court of first instance in September last year sentenced the two women – Natacha Rey, who calls herself an independent journalist, and Amandine Roy, a self-proclaimed spiritual medium – to pay Brigitte Macron 8,000 euros in damages, and her brother 5,000 euros. However, the appeals court last week overturned the verdict for all 18 disputed claims, stating that the accused acted in “good faith,” even for the only segment that referred to the corruption of minors.
Macron’s lawyer, Jean Ennochi, announced that her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux would also file an appeal. The Supreme Court will now consider whether the appeals court correctly applied the law – it will not re-examine the facts, but only the legal merits of the judgment.
This case has once again opened the question of how France combats the spread of online disinformation, especially when public figures are the targets. French authorities have taken an increasingly firm stance against digital disinformation in recent years, particularly during election periods and in defamation cases.
Similar disinformation campaigns have previously affected other prominent women in politics, such as Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who were also targeted with claims that they are transgender.
Source: RFI Foto: AFP
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