Two women are sentenced to pay damages to Brigitte Macron after spreading rumors that the French President's wife is a trans woman. The rumor went viral in connection with the 2022 presidential election.
The conspiracy theory that was spread, based on a YouTube video posted by the two women in December 2021, claimed that Brigitte Macron was a man named Jean-Michel, which is the name of her brother. Thus, the women also meant that Brigitte Macron and her brother are actually the same person.
Now, the women are sentenced in a Paris court for defamation to pay 8,000 euros – equivalent to around 91,000 Swedish kronor – to the President's wife and 5,000 euros in damages to her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux.
Brigitte Macron herself did not attend the trial.