Claims that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman first emerged online in 2021 and have since gone viral. “Two billion people have been exposed to this story in French and 2.5 billion in English,” says investigative journalist Thomas Huchon.
"I've been working on conspiracy theories and fake news for more than 10 years, and I've never seen something like that," says Huchon, who specialises in misinformation.
"Whether that be on the topic, the magnitude of the reach of the audience, of the impact it has on French society and French politics, we've never seen such crazy fake news having such a wide and important impact."
Flora Bolter, an expert in LGBTQI+ issues at the Fondation Jean-Jaurès think tank, describes it as a "perfect storm" of trends, pointing to a rise in attacks on trans rights globally, a surge in conspiracy theories post-Covid, and a "very human desire to belittle people in power, particularly attacking powerful men through their wives".
The rumour first surfaced through videos by Natacha Rey, "a conspiracy believer with links to France's Yellow Vest movement", according to Huchon, and Delphine J, an internet fortune-teller known online as Amandine Roy.
While the story circulated widely in far-right and conspiracist media, the Macrons remained quiet – as did most mainstream French media.
"We didn't want to cover it because it was so lame, so dirty, so personal," Huchon, who was working for news channel LCI at the time, admits. "In...
Claims that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman first emerged online in 2021 and have since gone viral. “Two billion people have been exposed to this story in French and 2.5 billion in English,...