Hackers change Brigitte Macron’s gender to male on tax forms
- - Hackers change Brigitte Macron’s gender to male on tax forms
Vivian SongOctober 27, 2025 at 2:03 AM
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Brigitte Macron, France’s first lady, has been dogged by conspiracy theorists questioning her gender - JEANNE ACCORSINI/AFP
Brigitte Macron was given a male name on her personal tax record by a team of hackers, a French government official has said.
The 72-year-old first lady of France has long been the subject of rumours questioning her gender, which have been shared by conspiracy theorists and social media influencers online for several years.
The rumour falsely claims that Mrs Macron was born a male and that her real name is Jean-Michel Trogneux. In reality, her maiden name is Trogneux and she has a brother called Jean-Michel.
The smear campaign went as far as hacking into her personal tax account and changing her name to “Jean-Michel, known as Brigitte Macron”, according to Tristan Bromet, chief of staff to Mrs Macron.
Mr Bromet made the revelation in an interview with BFMTV, a French news channel, in which he recounted how the French president’s wife was stunned to see that her legal name had been changed when she logged into her personal tax account.
French news channel BFMTV showed Mrs Macron’s allegedly hacked tax record - x.com/BFMTV
“We were completely surprised,” Mr Bromet, who has worked with Mrs Macron since 2017, said. “I tried it again with her, and sure enough. It’s a section reserved for your username, so it can’t be changed.”
Mrs Macron filed a complaint and two people involved in the hacking have been identified. Mr Bromet did not indicate when the incident occurred.
Mr Bromet’s interview is part of a documentary broadcast on Sunday night, ahead of a trial starting on Monday in the Paris criminal court, where eight men and two women will face allegations of sexist cyberbullying against Mrs Macron.
Emmanuel Macron and the first lady have also filed a separate lawsuit against Candace Owens, a far-Right American influencer and long-time Trump supporter, who produced an eight-part podcast series falsely claiming that Mrs Macron is transgender.
Candace Owens produced an eight-part podcast series claiming that Mrs Macron is transgender - Lev Radin/Pacific Press
The defendants in Monday’s trial include an elected official, gallery owner, teacher, medium, and computer scientist ranging in age from 41-60.
They are accused of making numerous malicious comments about the first lady, and equating the age difference with her husband – who is 24 years her junior – with “paedophilia.”
Aurelien Poirson-Atlan, a 41-year-old advertising executive, posted under the pseudonym Zoe Sagan and was identified as one of the alleged spreaders of lies and conspiracy theories.
He is also accused of sharing explicit videos of Benjamin Griveaux, the president’s mayoral candidate for Paris in 2020, who was forced to withdraw from the race after being accused of sending sexual content to a woman who was not his wife.
After being cleared of defamation charges by a French court in July, Delphine Jegousse, 51, who went by the pseudonym Amandine Roy as a “clairvoyant,” will also be back in court this week to respond to cyberbullying charges.
In 2021, she and Natacha Rey, a self-described journalist, falsely claimed Mrs Macron was a man and described the first lady as a “swindle”, “deception” and “state lie” while sharing photos of her and her family in a four-hour YouTube video.
Delphine Jegousse, who claimed Mrs Macron was a man, was cleared of defamation charges by a French court in July - YouTube
The rumours resurfaced in the US earlier this year when Ms Owens’s podcast series “Becoming Brigitte” garnered millions of views on YouTube.
To put the false story to rest once and for all, the couple’s lawyer said Mrs Macron would present photographic and scientific evidence to an American court to prove that she is a biological woman.
“We’re prepared to demonstrate fully, both generically and specifically, that what she’s saying about Brigitte Macron is false,” Tom Clare, the couple’s lawyer said on the BBC’s Fame Under Fire podcast.
He said: “It is a process that she will have to subject herself to in a very public way. But she’s willing to do it. She is firmly resolved to do what it takes to set the record straight.”
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Source: “AOL General News”
