Brigitte Macron awarded damages over false trans claim

On Thursday, a Paris court ordered two women to pay €8,000 in damages to French First Lady Brigitte Macron for spreading false claims that she was transgender. The women, who posted a YouTube video in December 2021, had alleged that Brigitte Macron was once a man named "Jean-Michel." This disinformation spread widely on social media, just before the 2022 presidential election, perpetuated by conspiracy theorists and far-right groups.

The court also awarded an additional €5,000 in damages to Brigitte Macron's brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, whom the rumor had falsely implicated. The defendants, Amandine Roy, a spiritual medium, and Natacha Rey, an independent journalist, were further handed suspended fines of €500. Brigitte Macron did not attend the trial or the ruling.

This case is part of a broader pattern of public figures, particularly women in politics like Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris, being targeted by gender and sexuality-based disinformation aimed at mocking or undermining their credibility.

Interestingly, on the same day, Brigitte Macron made her Netflix debut playing herself in the popular series "Emily in Paris," an idea conceived after a meeting with the show's creators in December 2022.