Credits: Presidencia de la República Mexicana / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY 2.0.
A persistent rumor launched in France by certain conspiracy theorists and internet users, accusing Brigitte Macron of being transgender, has been taken up across the Atlantic by figures in the U.S. Republican Party. American journalist Candace Owens, a supporter of Donald Trump, has revived this dubious theory on X by presenting it as one of the biggest political scandals. According to her, the French First Lady would in fact be a man. She backed up this claim in a video that has already been viewed more than 1.5 million times.
Video unavailableThe accusation, which claims that the First Lady was born Jean-Michel Trogneux, is built around the supposed absence of photos of a young Brigitte Macron and an alleged resemblance to her brother, veering as far as narratives of transsexuality.
The sudden interest of the ambitious Candace Owens from the United States in this theory, widely discredited in France, seems to be motivated by the approach of the American and European elections. Owens argues that the mainstream media are concealing this story, which she describes as political blackmail orchestrated by shadowy forces, without identifying them. This rhetoric follows the classic patterns of conspiracy thinking, in which individuals are allegedly manipulated by an omnipotent entity.
Interest among some internet users in the private life of the president’s wife is very real. Many Google searches ask about Brigitte Macron’s age, her hair, her marriage…
Cyril Hanouna, on the well-known show Touche pas à mon poste, also discussed the scope of the rumor with his panelists. The story has also been covered by the Daily Mail, among others. This situation recalls other disinformation campaigns based on gender identity, targeting political figures such as Michelle Obama and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. This kind of malicious rumor has also harmed famous French women such as singer Sheila, former Miss France Élodie Gossuin, and even actress and former muse of Salvador Dalí, Amanda Lear, who chose to laugh it off.
Emmanuel Macron‘s response to these outlandish allegations was to lament the presence of "freaks." This case raises questions about the reach of fake news spread too broadly by social media. It is all the more worrying with major elections approaching.