BRIGITTE Macron was given a male name on the official French tax portal by a team of cruel hackers, according to a top governmental official.
The glamorous French First Lady, 72, is locked in a bitter yet bizarre legal battle to prove she is a biological woman as 10 people now face trial for “sexist cyberbullying”.
Mrs Macron, the wife of President Emmanuel Macron, has faced humiliation in Paris after hackers reportedly altered her name to Jean-Michel on national tax filing system.
A routine audit of Brigitte’s tax reports in September 2024 discovered the nasty dig, according to the head of the administration for the Macron’s, Tristan Bomme.
Bomme said: “Like many French people, Madame Macron logged into her personal account on the tax website.
“She logs into the system and sees that it does not say Brigitte Macron, but Jean-Michel Macron.”
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He added that Brigitte made an official complaint once it had been uncovered.
Fears of a software glitch were investigated but it was soon found to be as a result of a deliberate intervention, according to Bomme.
The section which had been edited is impossible to change without the individual user’s permission, Bomme said.
Two suspects were identified as having an involvement in the cyberattack by changing the name in the database.
Now, another 10 people are set to stand trial for similar defamatory accusations against Brigitte.
Eight men and two women will be tried before the Paris Criminal Court on Monday for sexist cyberbullying against Brigitte.
They include an elected official, gallery owner, teacher, medium and even a computer scientist.
The defendants, all aged between 41 and 60, are accused of making numerous malicious comments about Brigitte around her “gender” and “sexuality”.
Brigitte Macron’s legal battles
For years, vicious rumours claiming Brigitte was born a man have spread online by conspiracy theorists and right-wing personalities.
One of the biggest is US pundit Candace Owens.
Last March, Owens said she “would stake [her] entire professional reputation” on the claim that Brigitte was born male.
She even alleged Brigitte is in fact her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, and that her first husband never existed.
Hurt by the outlandish comments to her hundreds of thousands of viewers, both Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron took legal action.
They filed for defamation in July and vowed to do whatever necessary to prove Brigitte is and always has been a woman.
But Owens hit back by saying she would demand a medical exam as part of any trial.
She announced: “We’re going to demand Brigitte sit down for an exam with an independent doctor.
“We’re coming for her medical records.”
Her lawyer’s have insisted Owens has a right to say what she believes under free speech laws.
The rumours about Brigitte’s birth gender first took off in France after far-right magazine Faits et Documents printed them in 2021.
Experts reveal eye-watering pieces of evidence Brigitte Macron will reveal to prove she’s a woman
By Juliana Cruz Lima , Foreign News Reporter
DR Emma Hilton, a developmental biologist at the University of Manchester, told The Sun the First Lady could technically offer at least five types of evidence.
CHILDBIRTH
The strongest evidence, Dr Hilton said, would be showing she has carried a child.
“If you see a baby coming out of someone, you’re going to say, ‘yes, OK, that’s a woman’,” she commented.
And photos of Brigitte Macron pregnant with her three children could be decisive.
HORMONE LEVELS
Doctors could check sex hormone levels – testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone – which differ in men and women.
Dr Hilton noted: “It’s something that’s been used for sports categories before.
“We use them to check the general sexual health of men and women in adulthood.”
MAKE MALE GENE
Scientists can run a genetic test for the specific gene that triggers male development.
“It’s called the ‘make male’ gene. It’s the single trigger in humans to say you are going to be male,” Dr Hilton said.
And if it’s absent, it means the person is female.
CHROMOSOME SCREENING
A simple screen could show whether Macron carries a Y chromosome – a marker of male sex.
This usually means taking a blood sample and looking for the presence of a Y chromosome, which is typically linked with male sex.
MENSTRUAL HISTORY
Doctors could also review menstrual history, meaning whether someone has ever had periods, when they began, and how regular they are.
They were later peddled to the public by bloggers Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy who pushed them in a YouTube interview that went viral.
The Macrons sued Rey and Roy for defamation in Paris and won with the two women being hit with huge fines.
But the pair were later acquitted by the Paris Court of Appeal over the incident on freedom of expression grounds.
Brigitte has appealed the decision to overturn the court’s verdict.
Amandine, a self-proclaimed 51-year-old whistleblower, has long claimed that Brigitte is a transgender woman who was born Jean-Michel.
They allege that she never gave birth to her three children due to her gender.
President Macron has furiously denied the allegations, branding them “false and fabricated.”
On International Women’s Day he said: “The worst thing is the false information and fabricated scenarios. People eventually believe them.”
