About

Brigitte Macron Is Transgender Conspiracy Theory refers to claims that Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, was born Jean-Michel Trogneux, who is one of her brothers, and transitioned to female at some point between her childhood and her early 30s before meeting and marrying her husband. Spawned in France in December 2021, the conspiracy theory gained spread in the United States starting in March 2024 as it was propagated by controversial political commentator Candace Owens.

Origin

In October 2021, the French independent investigative newsletter Faits et Documents ("Facts and Documents") began a serialized investigation into Brigitte Macron, nee Trogneux, the wife of French President Emanual Macron, with the first part of the investigation titled "Le Mystère Brigitte Macron" published in issue number 497.^[1]

In the fifth part of the investigation, published in Faits et Documents number 501, journalist Xavier Poussand claims that Jean-Michel Trogneux, a boy born in 1944 who appeared rarely in the family photographs and public information about whom is unavailable, is the same person as Brigitte Macron (Trogneux family photograph shown below; boy in the checkered shirt is thought to be Jean-Michel or Brigitte's other brother Jean Claude according to other sources).^[2] The original investigation claims that Jean-Michel became Brigitte a few years after his birth.

On December 12th, 2021, investigative journalist Natacha Rey discussed the theory with self-proclaimed French clairvoyant Amandine Roy during a livestream of her talk show Mediumnisation (original video no longer available).^[3] The stream went viral in France, garnering over 450,000 views on YouTube before its deletion.

Following the livestream, the theory saw viral spread on social media among French users in mid-December 2021, with the hashtag "#JeanMichelTrogneux" trending in France (example post shown below).

In the United States, the theory was popularized by controversial political commentator Candace Owens, who on March 11th, 2024, posted a YouTube^[4] video titled "INSANE. This Is The BIGGEST Political Scandal In Human History," which received over 1.3 million views prior to being removed.

A number of articles addressing the claims were posted by various French and international publications starting in late 2021. Notably, on December 31st, 2021, the British tabloid Daily Mail^[5] posted an article titled "The proof France's First Lady WASN'T born a man."

The article mentions that the boy in the checkered shirt seen in the photograph is likely Brigitte's late older brother Jean-Claude and that the news of Brigitte Macron's birth was published in the Courier Picard, a daily newspaper of the Picardy region she hails from, with the news article reading, "Anne-Marie, Jean-Claude, Maryvonne, Monique and Jean-Michel Trogneux have great joy in announcing the arrival of their little sister, Brigitte."

Additionally, Daily Mail uncovered multiple photographs of Brigitte Trogneux at various ages, including photographs of her taking her first Holy Communion, playing in the garden of her home and wedding day photographs with her first husband Andre-Louis Auziere.

On December 24th, 2021, Le Figaro^[6] reported that Brigitte Macron was planning to sue those behind the rumor. In September 2024, Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy were found^[7] guilty of slander and ordered to pay €8,000 ($8,800) to Brigitte Macron and €5,000 to Jean-Michel Trogneux.

Spread

Following the continued support of the conspiracy theory by Candace Owens through 2024 and 2025, the subject has become a recurring topic of discussions and jokes on social media among English-speaking users within conspiracy theory and far-right circles.

For example, on March 28th, 2024, X^[8] / Twitter user @ReturnOfKappy posted a series of four photographs comparing the faces of Brigitte Macron and the boy in the checkered shirt, with the post (shown below) gaining over 4,100 reposts and 16,000 likes in one year.

On January 11th, 2025, X^[9] user @CilComLFC shared a clip of Brigitte Macron supposedly "manspreading" while sitting down, with the post (shown below) gaining over 12,000 reposts and 71,000 likes in three weeks.

I have NEVER seen another woman sit down like France’s First ‘Lady’ Brigitte Macron does.Just saying. pic.twitter.com/WpDlLr5JTZ

— Cillian (@CilComLFC) January 11, 2025

On January 24th, 2025, Candace Owens announced^[10] an upcoming investigative series Becoming Brigitte about the theory, expected to launch on December 31st, 2025.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References