TRUE OR FALSE. Why is there a rumor circulating around Brigitte Macron’s gender identity?

For the first time, the President of the Republic responds on camera to the wild and persistent rumors affecting his wife, Brigitte Macron. “There are small everyday gestures, and the annoyances and humiliations which are unbearable and which continue to exist in the behavior of some”, declared Emmanuel Macron. The head of state refers to fake news that has been circulating for several years and which claims that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux. Where did this rumor come from and how did it get so big?

False information from the far right

It starts in the middle of the presidential campaign, in 2021. Originally, an Internet user implied on Facebook that the first lady would be a man. She presents herself as an independent journalist and mentions the rumor a few months later in a live broadcast with a psychic, seen 450,000 times. This false information also appeared in the far-right magazine Facts and Documentsseveral issues of which are devoted to a supposed investigation into Brigitte Macron.

After its publication, the fake news quickly circulated on social networks and was taken up by conspiracy sites and far-right accounts. According to Pierre Lefébure, professor-researcher in political science, this rumor fuels a cultural war against the liberalism embodied by Emmanuel Macron. This malicious false information, shared by the far right, will therefore have succeeded in one of its objectives: to make the President of the Republic react.