How did online rumours that Brigitte Macron was born male go viral?

Rumours about Brigitte Macron’s gender began swirling online when her husband Emmanuel Macron was first elected President of France in 2017.

The couple made an uncommon pairing from the get-go. He an ambitious and energetic 39-year-old who had just become France’s youngest ever leader, and her a chic, cheery sexagenarian, 24 years his senior.

It was unusual enough to see a couple inverting the status quo that allows older men to date significantly younger women without comment. But what to make of the fact that the couple met at school, when the future president was 15 years old and Brigitte Macron was his English teacher?

In the eyes of French self-proclaimed journalist, Natacha Rey, Brigitte Macron was not to be trusted.

In a four-hour interview with self-proclaimed medium Amandine Roy, posted to YouTube in December 2021, Rey claimed that her three-year investigation had unveiled the “state-sponsored lie" that France’s first lady was born male and originally called Jean-Michel Trogneux – the name of Brigitte Macron’s older brother.

In the video, Rey used photos of a young Brigitte Macron available online to claim that the first lady’s walk and jaw were too masculine and that she was not the biological mother of her three children. One segment also referred to the corruption of a minor, seemingly hinting at the early stages of their relationship.  

Within 48 hours of the video being posted to Roy’s channel, it had racked up hundreds of thousands of views and was being covered by French and international media.

The rumours about Brigitte Macron had gone viral.

Read moreTen people go on trial in Paris over sexist cyber-harassment of Brigitte Macron

'No tangible elements'

Months beforehand, Rey had approached French investigative online newspaper Mediapart with her accusations against Brigitte Macron, which it refused to publish due to the lack of evidence.

“There were no tangible elements,” Mediapart journalist Antton Rouget told French news outlet BFMTV – just “flimsy” questions that lacked detail.

Nonetheless, Rey had links to the "Yellow Vest" protest movement, which channelled anger over living conditions in France at President Macron, and her theory found fertile ground among the movement’s radical fringes.

It was also picked up online by the mainstream influencer Zoé Sagan and Xavier Poussard, former editor of far-right magazine Faits et Documents.

Poussard's publication evolved the original rumour into a new narrative: Brigitte Macron (whose maiden name was Trogneux) died at a young age, after which her older brother Jean-Michel Trogneux changed sex and took on the identity of his deceased younger sister, before marrying Emmanuel Macron.

From 2023 onwards, Poussard worked to spread this theory in the US among supporters of President Donald Trump, and it was ultimately picked up by right-wing commentator Candace Owens, who has since become one of its most vocal champions.

“I would stake my entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man,” Owens said in a social media post in March 2024.

Owen has also said that Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron’s relationship “might be a story of pedophilia”, in a now-deleted video that was viewed more than a million times.

Read moreMacrons' lawyer says defamation suit against US influencer 'a last resort'

‘Transvestigation’

Why are internet users so keen to engage with the rumour that Brigitte Macron was born male?

“It’s fake news that has all the ingredients of a rather effective conspiracy theory,” said France 24 journalist Maya-Anaïs Yataghène, who reported on the story in 2024. “It involves the Head of State, it implies the presidency is lying to the public to hide a double life and, ultimately, it's transphobic.”

“These rumours (are) part of the broader 'wars on truth' that characterise much of today’s political discourse,” added Alessia Tranchese, associate professor in language, feminism and digital media at the University of Portsmouth. “They are primarily a partisan political phenomenon designed to weaken opponents and erode their legitimacy.”

More often than not, the fake news campaigns target women, as “sexism, ageism, and racism resonate with large segments of the public” and can be “strategically used to give traction to certain narratives, a dynamic we have often seen members of the manosphere exploit through coordinated attacks,” Tranchese added.

Along with Brigitte Macron, US first lady Michelle Obama, former US vice-president Kamala Harris and former president of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern have faced widespread online accusations of being secretly transgender.

Such conspiracy theories are “part of a larger movement known as ‘transvestigation’”, added Sander van der Linden, psychology professor at Cambridge University and author of “Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity”.

Online “transvestigators” operate under the assumption that “many celebrities are secretly transgender, and that they lead a cabal with the secret goal of subjugating the cisgender population,” he added.

Ultimately, the prevalence of these rumours signals mistrust in the establishment and a willingness to claw back some control from the political elite. Tranchese said, “determining what is true – or not – and who has the authority to determine and define that truth, lies at the heart of political power.”

'Scientific evidence'

As a visibly older woman married to a historically unpopular President, Brigitte Macron is almost the perfect target for such conspiracy theorists – and then there is the complicating factor of how the Macrons met.

The Macrons say their relationship began with a kiss on the cheek between teacher and student when Emmanuel Macron was 16 years old. 

Online detractors have not shied away from insinuating that Bridget Macron's relationship with the teenage Emmanuel could be pedophilia.

In a 2024 hearing, the French first lady said that years of being subjected to online rumours have taken their toll.

“All these allegations have had a profound impact on (my) circle, and on me personally,” she said. “Every time I go on an international visit, someone brings it up. There isn't a single spouse of a Head of State who isn't aware of it.”

In a bid to shut down the conspiracy theories, the Macrons and Brigitte’s brother Jean-Michel Trogneux have filed lawsuits in France and the US against those most prominent in spreading the rumours, including Rey, Roy (referred to in court as Delphine J.), Sagan (real name Aurelien Poirson-Atlan), Poussard and Owens.

Read moreFrance's first lady Brigitte Macron steps up legal battle over gender rumours

The Macron’s lawyer Tom Clare told the BBC that the couple is prepared to provide “scientific” evidence during the US trial to prove that Brigitte Macron was born female.

But the trials are a risk.

Legal victories “could be useful to signal to the public and to the perpetrators that there are mechanisms of accountability and defamation is not free speech,” said van der Linden.

However, the hearings could also draw more attention to the rumours overall and entrench false narratives.  

Among believers, “any attempt to refute the conspiracy theory is usually taken as evidence that there must be something to it”, van der Linden said.

“Whatever the court decides is unlikely to sway the beliefs of those already convinced by these theories,” agreed Tranchese.  "Any institutional ruling is viewed as an expression of the same 'elite' authority that must be distrusted. Even if a DNA test were produced as proof, sceptics could simply claim that the certificate was fabricated.”