A theory claiming that Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, was born a man and transitioned into a woman is being revived by far-right US commentator Candace Owens in a newly released video.
The conspiracy theory suggesting that Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, was originally a man and born as Jean-Michel Trogneux has resurfaced yet again. This theory, which has circulated since Emmanuel Macron’s election in 2017, was recently reignited by far-right American commentator Candace Owens. In a 40-minute video titled “Becoming Brigitte: An Introduction,” Owens revisits the unsubstantiated claim that Brigitte was born male and changed her identity.
Owens also alleges she is being threatened with legal action by the French President, a claim which is part of a broader, far-reaching conspiracy theory linking the Macron family to a global elite, paedophilia, and secret world orders.
The theory was first popularized by self-described journalist Natacha Rey, who claimed that Brigitte never existed and that her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux had changed gender. The accusations gained significant traction before the 2022 French presidential election, when an interview with Rey went viral, bolstered by a photo of Jean-Michel as a child, which conspiracy theorists claim resembles Brigitte. However, being siblings, this similarity is hardly unusual.
In response, Brigitte Macron filed a libel lawsuit, and in September, the court ordered Rey and another promoter of the theory, Amandine Roy, to pay €8,000 in damages to Brigitte and €5,000 to her brother. Emmanuel Macron also publicly dismissed the claims, remarking that “there are still some crazies out there.”
The resurgence of this unfounded theory highlights a wider trend of “transvestigation,” where high-profile women are falsely accused of being transgender. This practice has been directed at other public figures, including Melania Trump and Madonna, and often ties into far-reaching conspiracy narratives about world domination and other secret agendas. According to the LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD, this trend is rooted in bigotry and ignorance, maliciously targeting public figures based on baseless claims about their gender identity.
euronews