10 Guilty of Cyberbullying Brigitte Macron Over Trans Rumors
A French court said the defendants spread false claims about the first lady’s gender and falsely likened her marriage to pedophilia.
Ten people have been found guilty of cyberbullying France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, by using social media to spread false rumors that she was transgender and equating the nature of her relationship with her husband, who is 24 years her junior, to pedophilia.
The eight men and two women, ranging in age from 41 to 65 — three of whom were tried in absentia — were convicted of online harassment and handed sentences ranging from mandatory cyberbullying awareness training to an eight-month suspended prison term.
The court also fined each defendant 600 euros and ordered them to pay a combined 10,000 euros — about $11,726 — in compensation to the 72-year-old Macron, reports The New York Times.
Five of the defendants were also barred from using the social media platform X — which they had used to disseminate the false claims — for six months.
The charges against the defendants stemmed from messages and photos they had posted on social media suggesting that Brigitte Macron was born a boy named Jean-Michel Trogneux — the name of Macron’s older brother.
Macron, who did not attend the two-day trial in October, said in an appearance on the French television network TF1 on the night before the verdict that she launched legal proceedings against the group to “set an example” in the fight against online harassment and cyberbullying, according to The Guardian.
“People are playing with my family tree, claiming I’m a man,” she said, noting that the defendants she sued ignored evidence that she was born female.
“A birth certificate is not nothing,” she said, pointing to her vital documents as evidence of her identity. “It is a father or a mother who goes to declare their child, who says who he is or who she is.”
She also said she wanted to be a role model for people facing similar harassment and bullying. “I want to help teenagers fight against bullying, and if I do not set an example, it will be difficult,” she said.
At trial, Macron’s daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, testified that her mother had been negatively affected by the spread of the false rumors and the resulting damage to her reputation. Auzière said the harm had also extended to Macron’s extended family, including her grandchildren, who were confronted with the claims.
Most of the defendants denied wrongdoing, arguing that their posts were either meant as jokes or constituted legitimate debate.
But the court found that claims suggesting Brigitte Macron was transgender or a pedophile were “degrading, insulting, and malicious,” and that “repeated publications” of the conspiracy theory “have had cumulative harmful effects.”
Prosecutors identified three of the defendants as the main instigators due to their large social media followings. Delphine Jégousse, 51, who is known as Amandine Roy and describes herself as a medium and an author, received a six-month suspended prison sentence.
Another defendant accused of being a chief instigator — 56-year-old Bertrand Scholler, the owner of an art gallery in Paris — received a six-month suspended sentence.
A third defendant, Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, a former publicist turned novelist who is also known as Zoé Sagan on social media, received an eight-month suspended sentence. Poirson-Atlan had tens of thousands of followers before his X account was disabled for alleged violations of the platform’s rules.
Another defendant, whose name has not been made public, was sentenced to six months in jail after failing to appear in court. According to The Associated Press, he may serve the sentence under house arrest with electronic monitoring.
A great deal of misinformation has been spread online about the Macrons, driven in part by a broader global trend of hostility toward and mistrust of mainstream political leaders; in part by conservatives’ opposition to President Emmanuel Macron’s center-left politics and more liberal positions on immigration; and in part by skepticism over the couple’s May-December romance and their age difference.
The Macrons first met when he was 15 and she was a married 39-year-old drama teacher at his secondary school. She later divorced her husband and married Macron in 2007, when he was 29.
The claims about Brigitte Macron’s gender identity and sexuality were amplified after being circulated by American right-wing podcaster Candace Owens, who produced a video series titled “Becoming Brigitte,” in which she promoted the theory that Macron was born Jean-Michel Trogneux and later assumed the identity of his younger sister after she died in childhood. Several of Owens’ claims were among the posts reshared and retweeted by the defendants in the cyberbullying case.
The Macrons have since sued Owens for defamation in a Delaware court, alleging that she made and spread “demonstrably false” statements about them despite knowing the claims were untrue, “in pursuit of fame.” Owens’ YouTube channel has more than 4.5 million subscribers.
Owens has continued to stand by her assertions, challenging the Macrons to provide evidence during the lawsuit’s “discovery” phase to “prove” that Macron was born female. She has said such evidence will ultimately clear her of all charges.
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