Fake news about transgender Brigitte Macron: First Lady's appeal to the Court of Cassation, we summarize the case for you

Brigitte Macron has filed an appeal after the Paris Court of Appeal acquitted two women on Thursday who had spread the rumor online that the first lady of France was a transgender woman .

Brigitte Macron's brother has also appealed to the Court of Cassation, the First Lady's lawyer, Jean Ennochi, said on Monday, July 14, 2025, confirming information from franceinfo .

The prosecution has also appealed, according to documents consulted by AFP.

Benefit of good faith

The two defendants, Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy, were acquitted of 18 articles brought to justice by Brigitte Macron and her brother.

Only one passage referring to the abduction of a minor fell within the scope of the press law, but the court also acquitted him, this time on the grounds of good faith.

At first instance, last September, Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy were found guilty and sentenced to a suspended fine of 500 euros , as well as to 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.

Popular rumor on the far right

At the heart of this affair is a fake news story that has regularly resurfaced on social media since Emmanuel Macron's election in 2017, according to which Brigitte Macron, née Trogneux, never existed , but that her brother Jean-Michel took on this identity after changing sex.

The two women had largely contributed to making it known in 2021, via a long "interview" of more than four hours where the first, the "medium" Amandine Roy, questioned the second, Natacha Rey, "self-taught independent journalist" on her YouTube channel about the discovery of this "deception", "scam", this "state lie".

In the interview, which was posted on YouTube, the two women shared photos of Brigitte Macron and her family , discussed surgical procedures she had undergone, claimed she was not the mother of her three children, and provided personal information about her brother.

The false information had been exported - notably and recently to the United States, where it went viral among the far right in the midst of the presidential campaign.

Several female politicians around the world have already been targeted by transphobic fake news, including former US First Lady Michelle Obama, former US Vice President Kamala Harris, and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.