Brigitte Macron Cyberbullying: 10 People Accused Of Malicious Posts About French First Lady’s Sexuality Stand Trial In Paris

The two-day trial of ten people accused of sexist cyberbullying against France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron by propagating fake and malicious claims about her sexuality and gender began in Paris on Monday.

The case is among a trio of lawsuits brought by French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife in the face of a claim that she was born a man and has undergone a sex change operation.

Baseless rumours about Brigitte Macron’s sexuality have circulated since her husband’s election as French president in 2017.

The fake news gained traction in 2021 after French blogger Natacha Rey posted a four-hour video on YouTube in which she claimed Macron was a transgender woman, born under the name of Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is the name of her real-life brother.

The video was like a flame to touch paper, fanning rumors across the internet, to eventually be picked up by U.S. influencer Candace Owens, who is the subject of a separate defamation lawsuit launched by the Macrons last July.

Among the 10 defendants seen arriving at the Paris Criminal Court in the French capital’s 17th arrondissement on Monday were Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, who posts under the pseudonym Zoé Sagan, as well as a clairvoyant named as Delphine Jegousse, who goes under the pseudonym of Amandine Roy.

The latter defendant has already stood trial alongside Rey in September 2024 on defamation charges brought by Brigitte Macron and her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux.

Initially found guilty, both were ordered to pay €8,000 ($9,310) in damages to Brigitte Macron, and €5,000 ($5,810) to her brother, but the ruling was overturned in July, with that last decision now under appeal.  

Roy does not figure among the defendants in the latest trial.

Four hours of the first day of the Paris hearing were taken up by requests for the trial to be delayed, with the defending lawyers saying key evidence had arrived too late; constitutional questions; a request for the trial to be moved to another court room to accommodate more members of the public and a motion by Poirson-Atlan’s lawyers for the case to be nullified.

Much of the evidence against the defendants consists of social media posts claiming Brigitte Macron isa man, often with derogatory language. The court also heard that impact the posts had had on the first lady, who has said the rumours follow her around the world.

The trial follows an investigation by France’s Brigade for the Repression of Offenses against the Person (BRDP), following an official complaint by Brigitte Macron in August 2024.

The brigade, which was created in 2004 and specializes in crime impacting individuals, made a wave of arrests in December 2024 and February 2025.

Local media reported that seven of the defendants had turned up for the trial, while Brigitte Macron did not attend in person and was represented instead by her lawyers.

In the backdrop, the Macrons continue to prepare their case against Owens. It was reported in September that the couple were planning to present present photographic and scientific evidence to a U.S. court to prove that Brigitte Macron is a woman.

Owens has stood by her multiple posts and multi-part investigation Becoming Brigitte – which has been widely debunked – retorting that Brigitte Macron would “need to submit herself to a third-party medical examination”.

Legal experts in the U.S. have countered that it is impossible to force someone to undergo a medical examination in a civil case under U.S. law, and that any such outcome would have to be voluntary.