In a stunning and deeply personal legal battle, France's First Lady, Brigitte Macron, has been forced to take the extraordinary step of providing official documentation to a court to prove she is a woman. This drastic action comes in response to a vicious and persistent online conspiracy theory that falsely claims she was born male.
The malicious rumour, which has festered in the darker corners of the internet for years, was recently amplified by a French far-right activist. The Élysée Palace has condemned the smear campaign as "a false and grotesque allegation" that has caused significant distress to the Macron family.
A Grotesque Online Smear Campaign
The bizarre theory, devoid of any factual basis, has been propagated by individuals seeking to undermine President Emmanuel Macron. It gained renewed traction when activist and convicted Holocaust-denier, Damien Rieu, shared the claims on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
In a bold move to silence the lies, Madame Macron's legal team presented her birth certificate to a Nanterre court. The document, issued by the city of Amiens, clearly lists her sex as female at birth, definitively debunking the absurd fiction.
Élysée Palace Breaks Silence with Fury
The President's office broke its usual silence on private matters to issue a scathing rebuke. A statement from the Palace slammed the conspiracy theory as "the worst form of fake news" and a direct attack on the dignity of the First Family.
"It’s fake news, the worst, because it attacks the intimacy of a person, the dignity of a person," the statement read, highlighting the profound personal impact of the sustained online harassment.
This incident highlights the extreme challenges public figures face in an era of rampant online disinformation, where even the most baseless claims can necessitate formal legal and governmental response.
