French First Lady Brigitte Macron Awarded $8,800 Over False Claims She’s Transgender

France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron has been awarded $8,800 in damages after two French women made false claims that she was transgender.

In December 2021, Amandine Roy and Natacha Rey were featured in a four-hour YouTube video, during which they said Brigitte was born a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux, the name of her brother. 

The transphobic claims against her were used to try and damage her husband French President Emmanuel Macron’s re-election campaign in 2022 by far-right French groups.

On February 15, 2022, the First Lady filed a complaint against the women, declaring that the video was an invasion of privacy and image rights. She demanded that the video be taken down and that payment be made for the damages it caused.

The court soon voided the complaint on March 7, saying it should have been filed as public defamation rather than an invasion of privacy and image.

On March 8, the president shut down the claims about his wife, stating that they were misogynistic attacks.

In June, France’s first lady took the two French women to court. Roy appeared in criminal court on June 19. Rey was sick but failed to have the trial postponed. 

Brigitte did not attend, but her attorney was still present in court. 

On September 12, a Paris court sentenced Roy and Rey to pay the French president’s wife $8,800 in damages and $5,500 to Trogneux. The woman had also received a suspended fine of $550.

The decision came as Brigitte is set to play herself in the Netflix series Emily in Paris. The show’s star, Lily Collins, told Elle magazine that the idea came to her and the show’s creator, Darren Star, when they met the French first lady at the Elysée Palace in December 2022.