Two women face trial for defamation over claims about Brigitte Macron’s gender

Two women are on trial in France for defamation after alleging that Brigitte Macron, wife of President Emmanuel Macron, was once a man named “Jean-Michel,” as reported by France24.

Amandine Roy appeared in a Paris court, while independent journalist Natacha Rey, citing illness, was absent. The claims originated from a 2021 interview on Roy’s YouTube channel where Rey proposed that Brigitte Macron was actually her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, living under a new identity. The interview sparked a social media frenzy.

Brigitte Macron filed lawsuits in 2022, accusing the defendants of defamation and invasion of privacy for both herself and her brother.

While the court dismissed the invasion of privacy claims, the defamation case has been ongoing since January 2022. Her lawyer, Jean Ennochi, is seeking €10,000 ($10,750) in damages for both Brigitte and her brother. Neither President Macron nor his wife attended the trial.

According to the official narrative, Brigitte Macron was born Brigitte Marie-Claude Trogneux, later marrying Emmanuel Macron, 24 years her junior, in 2007 after divorcing her first husband and meeting Macron while teaching him as a teenager at a high school in Amiens.