- MailOnline has obtained details of a judgement handed down last June
- It refers to two defendants – Amandine Roy, a 52-year-old clairvoyant, and Natacha Rey, 48, who styled herself as a freelance journalist
Two women who falsely claimed French first lady Brigitte Macron was born a man were punished with ‘symbolic fines’ reduced on appeal, it emerged today.
In turn, both claimed they were subjected to ‘intimidation by the authorities’ as ‘ultra protected’ members of the Paris establishment tried to cover up a ‘state secret’.
Details of the bizarre case focused on President Emmanuel Macron’s 70-year-old wife were revived on Friday after her own daughter talked publicly about the accusations for the first time.
Tiphaine Auzière, 40, told the latest issue of Paris Match: ‘I have concerns about the level of society when I hear what is circulating on social networks about my mother being a man.’
Ms Auzière also discussed how wounded she remained after discovering as a 10-year-old child that her teacher mother was seeing the teenage Emmanuel Macron.
The future politician was just 15 when he began a relationship with the then married mother-of-three Brigitte Auzière, who was 40 at the time, and teaching drama at La Providence high school in Amiens, northern France.
As the French debated the unconventional personal life of their head of state, MailOnline obtained details of a judgement handed down at the Caen Appeal Court last June.
It refers to two defendants – Amandine Roy, a 52-year-old clairvoyant, and Natacha Rey, 48, who styled herself as a freelance journalist.
Both had appeared on a four-hour YouTube video in December 2021 in which they claimed that Brigitte was born as a baby boy called Jean-Michel Trogneux in 1953.
This is infact the name of Brigitte’s brother, and Ms Macron was called Brigitte Trogneux before her first marriage.
The defendants also claimed that Brigitte’s first husband, André-Louis Auzière, had never actually existed before his reported death in 2020, aged 68.
A judge sitting at Lisieux, in Normandy, originally fined the two women the equivalent of £1,700 each, after finding them both guilty of libel.
But, following appeals, Roy was fined the equivalent of just £850, and Rey had £1,300 of her £1,700 fine suspended, meaning she had to pay just £400.
Witnesses called to court included Catherine and Jean-Louis Auzière, a childless couple living in Deauville, Normandy.
Jean-Louis Auzière was once Brigitte Macron’s uncle, when Brigitte was married to André-Louis Auzière.
Natacha Ray claimed that Jean-Louis Auzière had falsified administrative documents to hide a ‘state secret’ – namely that his wife had given birth to all of Brigitte’s three children, including Tiphaine Auzière.
But Jean-Louis Auzière told the court: ‘I worked with Brigitte until the end of the 1980s, I can confirm to you that she is not a man.’
The original complaint against Ray and Roy was for invasion of private life, violation of image rights and infringement of personality rights,’ but the final case was for defamation.
Frédéric Pichon, Rey’s defence barrister, said her investigation about Ms Macron had been ‘carried out in good faith’ and in line with Article 10 of the European Court of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to freedom of expression.
He expressed outrage that his client was ‘placed in police custody twice during the case’, saying: ‘I am shocked by the disproportionate means deployed by the authorities to silence her.’
Mr Pichon added: ‘This looks like intimidation coming from ultra-protected people. If the theses she develops are so far-fetched, why go after her like this?
‘My client is not very wealthy, at least much less than those who are angry with her.’
All parties to the case accepted the ‘symbolic fines’ handed down on appeal as a final settlement to what had become a huge embarrassment to Mr and Mrs Macron.
The transphobic rumours about Mrs Macron were picked up by the far-Right in 2022, while the President was campaigning for re-election.
Groups including the Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes) and those protesting against Covid vaccines all used the claims to attack Mr Macron.
The video produced by Rey and Roy has since been removed from YouTube.
The Elysée Palace has yet to react on the comments by Tiphaine Auzière, who is promoting her new novel – a legal drama entitled ‘Assizes’, in reference to a criminal court.
This was despite lurid headlines across France, such as one in Gala, which reads: ‘Transphobic rumour about Brigitte Macron: why her daughter Tiphaine is worried’.
‘I learned a lot about human nature,’ Ms Auzière said in the interview published on Thursday, in which she also discussed learning of her mother’s relationship with Macron, resulting in the divorce of her parents.
‘I know that, in these moments, we must focus on the essential and move forward without taking into account criticism,’ she said of the transphobic rumours.
‘The attacks, the backbiting, the judgements. It was not yet the era of social networks, but we were in a small provincial town. Everything is known.
‘Despite all this, they stood tall. I gained an open mind, the desire to move forward without listening to peripheral noise, and gained greater tolerance.’
Ms Auzière said was particularly upset that her humiliated father, André-Louis Auzière, was forced to leave the family home in 1994, even though he did not divorce Brigitte until 2006, allowing Mr Macron to marry her a year later.
‘A family separation can be a sorrow and an opportunity,’ said Ms Auzière. ‘Recomposition can prove to be an enrichment.
‘I have a beloved father and stepfather,’ she added.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
