The wife of the French President Emmanuel Macron, Brigitte Macron plans to launch legal proceedings after unfounded news circulating on social media claimed that Brigitte is a transgender woman whose name at birth was Jean-Michel Trogneux. The rumours claimed that the French first lady was born a man.
According to the false assertions, a massive scheme was devised to conceal the change in civil status.
The attacks on Brigitte come as Macron prepares to run for re-election in April.
“She has decided to initiate proceedings, it is in progress,” the lawyer for Brigitte, Jean Ennochi confirmed to the media.
The rumours reportedly originated on Facebook in March by a user calling themselves “Natacha Rey”, before spreading in the month of October, after a media outlet published a story on the alleged “mystery of Brigette Macron.” The news was subsequently shared by conspiracy theorists and within no time, the rumours spread on various social media platforms like wildfire that the first lady of France is a transgender woman. The hashtag #JeanMichelTrogneux appeared for the first time on Twitter on November 1. The hashtag has so far generated 68,300 retweets and over 174,000 likes. Brigitte now intends to file a legal complaint to sue over the disinformation.
This is not the first time Brigitte has been the target of trolls. When French President Emmanuel Macron was elected in 2017, the couple was castigated for their 25-year age gap. Furthermore, Emmanuel Macron also had to debunk false claims about his purported homosexuality during his election campaign in 2017.
More recently, the French President’s strong stance against radical Islam and in support of freedom of speech has infuriated Islamic nations like Turkey and Pakistan that have condemned France and the French President alleging Islamophobia.
Pakistan’s National Assembly had even passed a resolution demanding its government to recall their non-existent envoy from France. Muslims across the globe have been taking out protests against France including in India. India had expressed solidarity with France and condemned the attacks on French people by Islamic terrorists.
