Why are false rumours about Brigitte Macron being transgender resurfacing?

euronews (in English)

False rumours that Brigitte Macron is transgender have been spreading for years. Now Candace Owens, an American far right commentator, has published a video repeating them and gaining millions of views.

Transcript

00:00Why are the false rumours that Brigitte Macron is transgender circulating again?

00:06The debunked conspiracy theory that the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron was born a biological man

00:12and transitioned to become a woman has been pushed many times in recent years.

00:16On Friday, far-right American commentator Candace Owens released a video titled

00:20Becoming Brigitte? An Introduction.

00:22In it, she rehashes the claim that Brigitte Macron was born a man and went by the name Jean-Michel Trouillot.

00:29She also claims to be the target of a legal threat from the French President.

00:46Owens offers no evidence to back this up and says this will be the first in a series investigating Brigitte Macron.

00:52The video has more than 2.5 million views on YouTube and has also been released on other platforms

00:57including Spotify. A slew of viral posts on X have since popped up repeating the claim.

01:02But it is not true.

01:04The conspiracy theory has been floating around since Emmanuel Macron was first elected in 2017.

01:09It was then pushed by self-described journalist Natasha Rae.

01:12She claimed that Brigitte never existed and that her brother Jean-Michel had changed gender and started using that name.

01:19Rae was interviewed by Amandine Roy, a self-proclaimed spiritual medium, for a YouTube video in 2021

01:25and the false theory went viral before the 2022 presidential election.

01:29This led Brigitte Macron to file a libel complaint and in September the pair were ordered by a French court

01:34to pay €8,000 in damages to her and €5,000 to her brother.

01:39Emmanuel Macron also commented on the claims for the first time last year, saying there are still some crazies out there.

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