The Élysée Palace has claimed that hackers previously changed the name of French First Lady Brigitte Macron to that of her brother in the national tax database.
Amid ongoing legal battles in France and the United States concerning rumours about President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, a documentary published this week has sown further intrigue surrounding the novel personal lives of the Macrons.
Appearing on the BFMTV “From Rumour to Conspiracy” documentary, Brigitte Macron’s chief of staff, Tristan Bromet, said that in 2024, the First Lady discovered that her first name on the country’s tax website had been changed to Jean-Michel, the name of her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, Le Figaro reported.
“Beyond the nausea, you’re totally surprised,” Bromet is quoted as saying, adding that the section of the website was supposed to be incapable of being changed.
It comes amid longstanding rumours spread in France by freelance journalist Natacha Rey and clairvoyant Amandine Roy that Mrs Macron was born as a man, and previously was known as Jean-Michel Trogneux. Last year, the two women were found guilty of slander and were ordered to pay damages to Macron and her brother. However, in July, the Paris Appeals Court found that they had made the mistake in “good faith” and thus ruled that they would no longer have to pay the damages.
The ‘Jean-Michel Trogneux’ theory has been picked up by American political commentator Candace Owens, who is currently being sued by the French First Family for defamation in the U.S. state of Delaware.
Responding to the documentary, Owens wrote on X on Monday: “If it walks like a dude, talks like a dude, and is listed in the French tax registry as a dude, then it’s the First Dude of France.”
However, the BFMTV film went on to say that the change was a result of a hacking operation by a Corsican couple, named as Juliette and Laurent A., who reportedly admitted to police that they changed Macron’s name in the database as a “stupid and thoughtless joke” and as a way of “protesting government policy”. Despite this, the couple were acquitted after establishing the existence of a “tax administrative bug” that enabled the hack. Macron is currently appealing the decision.
Meanwhile, a trial against ten people began on Monday in Paris over alleged “cyberbullying” of Mrs Macron over “malicious” comments made online suggesting that she is a transgender biological male and for spreading claims that she engaged in what allegedly started as a paedophilic relationship with President Macron.
While the First Couple have admitted that there were romantic undertones to their relationship when President Macron was Bridgette’s underage student, they have maintained that nothing inappropriate occurred until after he became an adult.
Among those standing trial are Amandine Roy, a computer scientist, an elected politician, and a teacher, the Associated Press reported. The chief judge in the case said that the First Lady has suffered a “deterioration of her physical and mental health” as a result of the allegations of transgenderism.
