Brigitte Macron, wife of the current president of France, has revealed plans to sue over a conspiracy theory that she was born male.
The fake news surrounding France’s first lady became widespread on social media after a small and very right-wing journal first made the allegations in an article back in September.
The outlet, Faits et Documents, claimed the 68-year-old was born Jean-Michel Trogneux and falsely identified her as being transgender.
Ahead of France’s presidential election, the first lady is set to press charges for libel against those who first made the claims, according to her lawyer.
Faits et Documents published the false claim as part of a ‘three-year investigation’ into Macron. Its allegation that Macron’s name at birth was Jean-Michel Trogneux and was based on her maiden name being Trogneux, The Telegraph reports.
Jean Ennochi, Macron’s lawyer, noted how ‘legal action’ is currently ‘in progress,’ after the French president’s wife ‘decided to initiate proceedings’.
Fears had been rising that the spread of the conspiracy theory could impact the elections, where President Macron is set to go head-to-head with two controversial populists who align with the far-right.
The conspiracy theory only started gaining traction on December 10 after the journalist who wrote the original article, Natacha Rey, posted a four-hour-long interview explaining the theory on YouTube.
The theory, which hadn’t previously been distributed widely because of the paper being in...
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