Ten people will face court for allegedly harassing French First Lady Brigitte Macron by falsely claiming she is a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux.
On Monday, eight men and two women aged from 41 to 60 will be tried in a criminal court in Paris over allegations of online harassment, which carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison.
Separately, a US civil defamation lawsuit was filed in July by Mrs Macron and her husband French President Emmanuel Macron against far-right American podcaster Candace Owens, who has repeatedly amplified the false claim online that Mrs Macron was born a man.
Tom Clare, a lawyer acting for the Macrons, said the couple were ready to prove “generally and specifically” that Owens’s allegations that Mrs Macron was born male were false. Their evidence would include scientific proof she is a woman, he said.
The French trial relates to a complaint filed by Mrs Macron in 2024 accusing all 10 defendants, who have pleaded not guilty, of allegedly making malicious comments about her gender and sexuality. Arrests were made in December 2024 and February 2025.
Several of those set for trial shared posts made by Owens.
Prosecutors argue the comments were as extreme as equating Ms Macron’s age difference with her husband to “paedophilia”.
One of the defendants is Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, a publicist with the name on social media as “Zoé Sagan” who is linked with conspiracy theory circles.
Another defendant is Delphine J, 51, who already has a defamation complaint filed by Ms Macron against her in 2022.
In 2021, Delphine J, who goes by the pseudonym Amandine Roy, posted a four-hour interview with a self-described independent journalist Natacha Rey alleging Ms Macron had once been a man called Jean-Michel Trogneux.
The civil lawsuit is currently being appealed by the two women after they were ordered to pay damages to Ms Macron and her brother in 2024.
Mrs Macron is 24 years older than her husband and first met him when she was a French teacher at his Jesuit secondary school in Amiens, directing him in a school play.
“At all times the teacher-student relationship between Mrs Macron and President Macron remained within the boundaries of the law,” they said.
Mrs Macron has three children from her first marriage. She divorced in 2006 and married President Macron the following year when he was 30.
