The first lady of France is petitioning the nation’s highest appeals court to rule on her libel complaint against two women who claim she is a biological male.
Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, hopes the Court of Cassation will side with her against self-proclaimed spiritual medium Amandine Roy and independent writer Natacha Rey.
It will be the third round of legal battle for the case after lower courts went back and forth on whether the two women’s claim that the first lady was “born a man” was libelous.
The origin of the case is found in a video published to YouTube in December 2021 in which Roy and Rey alleged Brigitte Macron was actually born a man.
In the video presented as an interview, the pair claimed that Jean-Michel Trogneux, the first lady’s brother, is her true identity and that this fact has been hidden through a complex conspiracy.
The two women alleged that Jean-Michel Trogneux transitioned into Brigitte through a series of surgeries before marrying the future French president, who is 25 years younger than his 72-year-old wife.
The Élysée Palace filed a libel complaint, and a lower court ruled in September of last year that the defendants owed Brigitte Macron €8,000 in damages and €5,000 to her brother.
A Paris court overturned that ruling on Thursday, finding that the video and its contents were covered by free speech laws, regardless of the substance of the claims.
Now, the case is set for its final decision after the first lady’s lawyer announced on Sunday her intention to bring it to the Court of Cassation. He noted that her brother would similarly petition the court.
Speculation and conjecture about various cover-ups surrounding the Macrons have gained viral traction on social media in the past several years, not only in France but also overseas.
American commentator Candace Owens has reveled in the spectacle caused by her “Becoming Brigitte” video series, which makes similar claims that the French first lady was born a man and secretly transitioned.
“After looking into this, I would stake my entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man,” she wrote on social media last year.
Owens claims to have also been contacted with cease-and-desist letters and legal threats by the Élysée Palace.
The lives and personal relationship of the Macrons remains a persistent point of public fascination.
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That curiosity was bolstered in May when press cameras captured the French president apparently being shoved in the face by his wife as they prepared to deplane in Vietnam.
The Élysée Palace brushed off speculation of marital woes and called the incident a “moment of closeness” in which the couple was “relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh.”