Daughter says Brigitte Macron’s life ‘deteriorated’ after cyberharassment allegations

Brigitte Macron’s daughter told a Paris court that sexist cyberharassment had had negative consequences on her mother’s health and living conditions.

Tiphaine Auzière, 41, is the daughter-in-law of French President Emmanuel Macron.

She spoke on the second and final day of the trial of 10 people accused of spreading unfounded allegations about Brigitte Macron’s gender and sexuality.

Macron, 72, has long been the target of conspiracy theories accusing her of being a transgender woman.

“It is important to be here today to express the harm that my mother suffered. I wanted to tell the story of what her life has been like since the moment she began to be the target of these attacks,” said Ms. Auzière.

She added that she had noticed a change and “deterioration” in her mother’s health since rumors around her gender and sexuality began to swirl.

Ms. Macron “had to be careful with her choices of outfits, postures… She knows perfectly well that her image will be used to support these theories,” said Ms. Auzière.

She said not a day went by without the allegations being reported to her mother – “even by someone who has good intentions and feels for her”.

If her mother “learned to live with it,” says Ms. Auzière, she suffered the repercussions on her grandchildren, who were taunted at school.

“She wasn’t elected, she didn’t ask anyone for anything and she’s under attack.”

Prosecutors are seeking suspended prison sentences of three to 12 months for the accused, as well as fines of up to €8,000 ($9,300).

Among the defendants – all aged between 41 and 65 – are an elected official, a gallery owner and a teacher.

One of them, Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, is accused of telling his 200,000 online followers that Ms. Macron was a transgender woman and that the 24-year age gap between her and Emmanuel Macron amounted to “state-sanctioned pedophilia.”

Mr Poirson-Atlan told the court on Tuesday he was a “satirist” who simply wanted to put forward “a different point of view to that of the mainstream media”.

Two other defendants – self-proclaimed independent journalist Natacha Rey and internet psychic Amandine Roy – were already found guilty of defamation last year for claiming that France’s first lady never existed and that her brother had changed sex and started using her name. They were later acquitted by an appeals court.

Other defendants also claimed to have used their “freedom of expression”. The Macrons were asked to publish photos of pregnant Brigitte Macron to prove that she is a biological woman.

The Macrons have already said they will present such evidence in legal proceedings against US right-wing influencer Candace Owens.

Owens has repeatedly defended her view that Brigitte Macron is a man and in March 2024, she claimed she would put “her entire professional reputation” on the line over the allegation.

Earlier this year, the Macrons’ lawyer in the case, Tom Clare, told the BBC that the couple would present photographic and scientific evidence to a US court to prove that Ms Macron is a woman.

“It’s incredibly upsetting to think that you have to submit, to put forward this type of evidence,” he said.

Ms Macron first met her now husband while she was a teacher at his secondary school.

The couple finally married in 2007, when Mr. Macron was 29 and Mrs. Macron was 54.