If Brigitte Macron had not wanted to react at the beginning of the dissemination of these “fake news”, the wife of the head of state will decide to take legal action in order to obtain compensation. Indeed, what could have been considered a joke in bad taste at the beginning turned into online harassment. Brigitte Macron’s brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, directly targeted by the two women, has also become a civil party in this case.
Convicted by the Paris Criminal Court
As a reminder, the two women had spread the rumor that Brigitte Macron, née Trogneux, never existed, but that her brother Jean-Michel had taken this identity after changing sex. Brigitte Macron would therefore be a transgender woman. These accusations had started in 2017 after her husband was elected President of the Republic. The “medium” Amandine Roy, questioned the second, Natacha Rey, “self-taught independent journalist” on her YouTube channel about the discovery of this “deception”, “fraud”, this “state lie”.
The two women had largely contributed to making this theory known in 2021, via a long “interview” of more than four hours that was relayed around the world. They were sentenced last Thursday by the Paris Criminal Court for “defamation”. They will have to pay a suspended fine of 500 euros, as well as pay a total of 8,000 euros in damages to Brigitte Macron, and 5,000 euros to her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux, both civil parties in the trial. The trial was held last June.
A “fake news” that went around the world
Jean Ennochi, Brigitte Macron’s lawyer, who was absent from the deliberations and the trial, considered that “this is not a victory, it is a normal application of the law.” The lawyer had raised in June, during the hearing, the “enormous” damage caused by this false information, which had “flared up everywhere” in the world. He added that “prosecutions are underway in France, and abroad.” In this interview broadcast on YouTube, four hours long, Amandine Roy and Natacha Rey had shown photos of Brigitte Macron and her family, mentioning surgical procedures that she had undergone. They claimed that the First Lady would not be the mother of her three children and gave personal information about Jean-Michel Trogneux.
