Brigitte Macron’s daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, has told a Paris court that the relentless sexist cyber-bullying targeting her mother has taken a serious toll on the French First Lady’s health and daily life.
Auzière, 41, who is the stepdaughter of President Emmanuel Macron, testified on the final day of the trial involving 10 individuals accused of circulating false and malicious claims about Brigitte Macron’s gender and sexuality.
Mrs Macron, 72, has for years been the subject of conspiracy theories suggesting she is a transgender woman, allegations that her family has repeatedly denounced.
“It is important to be here today to express the harm my mother has faced. I wanted to give an account of what her life has been like since the moment she started being targeted by these attacks,” Auzière told the court.
She said she had observed a “deterioration” in her mother’s health and well-being since the falsehoods began to spread online. “She has had to be careful about her choices of outfits, of posture… She knows perfectly well that her image will be used to back these theories,” Auzière added.
According to her, the attacks have been so pervasive that “not a day went by” without someone mentioning them to her mother, “even by someone who means well and feels for her.”
While noting that Mrs Macron had “learned to live with it,” Auzière revealed that the ordeal had also affected her grandchildren, who faced taunts at school. “She hasn’t been elected, she hasn’t asked anything of anyone, and she comes under attack,” she lamented.
Prosecutors have requested suspended prison sentences ranging from three to 12 months and fines of up to €8,000 ($9,300) for the defendants, who are between 41 and 65 years old.
Among them are an elected official, a teacher, and an art gallery owner.
One of the accused, Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, is alleged to have told his 200,000 online followers that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman and that the 24-year age gap between her and President Macron amounts to “state-sanctioned paedophilia.” Poirson-Atlan defended himself in court, claiming he was a “satirist” who merely wanted to offer “a point of view different to that of the mainstream media.”
Two other defendants, self-described independent journalist Natacha Rey and internet fortune-teller Amandine Roy, were previously convicted of slander for asserting that France’s First Lady “never existed,” and that her brother had changed gender to assume her identity. Although later acquitted on appeal, they are again among the accused.
Some of the defendants argued that their statements were protected under “freedom of expression.” One even demanded that the Macrons publish photos of Brigitte Macron during pregnancy to “prove she is a biological woman.”
The presidential couple has already indicated that they intend to present such proof in a separate legal case in the United States against conservative influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly pushed the false narrative that Mrs Macron is a man.
Owens, in March 2024, declared she would “stake [her] entire professional reputation” on the claim. The Macrons’ lawyer, Tom Clare, told the BBC earlier this year that they plan to provide both photographic and scientific evidence to a U.S. court. “It is incredibly upsetting to think that you have to go and subject yourself, to put this type of proof forward,” Clare said.
Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron met when he was a student and she was a teacher at his secondary school. The pair married in 2007, when he was 29 and she was 54.
