False claims online damaged Brigitte Macron’s quality of life, daughter tells court | Brigitte Macron

Brigitte Macron’s daughter told a Paris court that false claims online that the French first lady was born a boy were damaging her mother’s quality of life and causing her to worry about the clothes she wears every day and her posture.

Lawyer Tiphaine Auzière, 41, was called as a witness in the trial of 10 people accused of abusing Brigitte Macron online by creating or reposting social media posts claiming she was a man.

Auzière said photos of her mother, including special summer photos, were posted online along with negative comments. “As a result, he now has to systematically pay attention to what he does in his daily life, what he wears, how he holds himself, because he knows that his image can be distorted to serve these attacks.”

Eight men and two women, aged between 41 and 60, are on trial in Paris for online harassment of Brigitte Macron. Some of the defendants had a small following on social media, while others were better known. They are all accused of making malicious comments about Brigitte Macron’s gender and sexuality. For some, this included characterizing her age difference with her husband, French President Emmanuel Macron, as “pedophilia”. If convicted, they face up to two years in prison.

Auzière, one of three children from Brigitte Macron’s first marriage, said she was affected by her mother’s social media posts that caused her “health to deteriorate” and “quality of life to deteriorate.”

He said: “Not a day or week goes by that someone doesn’t tell him about this… The hardest thing for him is the repercussions on his family… His grandchildren hear what’s being said: ‘Your grandmother is lying’ or ‘Your grandmother is your grandfather.’ This affects him a lot. He doesn’t know how to stop this… He’s not elected, he’s not up to anything, and he’s constantly exposed to these attacks. “As a daughter, a woman and a mother, I don’t wish anyone else to live.”

Auzière said her mother now “exhibited constant alertness that even the slightest appearance of her could be used to fuel hateful attacks against her.” For this reason, he cannot be calm in his daily activities… It is impossible for him to live a normal life without this issue, the attacks, which he targets, coming to the fore. “His identity is being systematically questioned, people are constantly talking about it to him.”

Auzière said her mother’s claims that she was a boy were like “a hurricane that never stops.”

The Paris trial is the latest stage in the legal battle on both sides of the Atlantic against the false claim that Brigitte Macron is a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux.

The Macrons also filed a US defamation lawsuit against conservative podcaster Candace Owens for amplifying and repeating the claim. In the Macrons’ case in the USA, it is stated that the accusation that Brigitte Macron is a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux is completely unfounded, and Trogneux is Brigitte Macron’s older brother. Trogneux, 80, lives in the northern French town of Amiens, where he grew up with Brigitte and her siblings in a family famous for their chocolate business.

Auzière told the court that he had seen his uncle a few months ago and that “he was doing really well”.

Earlier, Jean-Luc M, 65, a retired business owner who was deputy mayor of a village in Saône-et-Loire, was questioned about social media posts he had shared or written, including one that referred to Brigitte Macron as “our first lady.” He denied the online harassment, saying: “I never intended to cause harm.”

Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, a well-known publicist and fiction writer who has a high-profile social media account under the pseudonym Zoé Sagan, was questioned about four social media posts related to the identity of Brigitte Macron, including the ones shared by Owens. He rejected online harassment, saying legal action was “too dangerous for freedom of expression.”

Brigitte said her posts about Macron were “satire” and “humorous”. He said France was a nation with “satire in its DNA”. He said that Brigitte Macron should publish some photos of herself while pregnant, which would put an end to the allegations.

Art gallery owner Bertrand S denied the harassment. Brigitte said she posted about Macron being a man because she felt it had become a global issue “with consequences for France.” He felt that if too many people posted about it, “the Macrons would have to give us answers to our questions.”

The false theory about Brigitte Macron’s gender has spread partly because the Macrons’ relationship has long been the subject of comments on the Internet. Brigitte Macron, who is 24 years older than her husband, first met Emmanuel Macron when he was a French teacher at the Jesuit secondary school in Amiens and directed her in a school play.

The Macrons’ lawsuit against Owens in the US stated: “Through the school’s theater program, President Macron and Mrs. Macron established a deeper intellectual connection.” He added: “The teacher-student relationship between Mrs Macron and President Macron has always remained within the bounds of law.” Brigitte Macron, who had three children from her first marriage, divorced in 2006 and married Emmanuel Macron the following year, when she was 30.