Full details of the explosive trial in which two women falsely said Brigitte Macron was born a man and that ‘ultra-protected people’ covered it up are revealed after her daughter revives the rumors

Two women who wrongly claimed that French first lady Brigitte Macron was born a man have been punished on appeal with a reduction of ‘symbolic fines’, it emerged today.

In turn, both claimed they were subjected to “intimidation by the authorities” as “ultra-protected” members of the Paris establishment tried to cover up a “state secret.”

Details of the bizarre case targeting President Emmanuel Macron’s 70-year-old wife were revived on Friday after her own daughter spoke publicly about the allegations for the first time.

Tiphaine Auzière, 40, told the latest issue of Paris Match: “I worry about the level of society when I hear what is circulating on social networks about the fact that my mother is a man.”

Ms Auzière also discussed how wounded she was left after discovering as a 10-year-old child that her teacher mother was seeing teenage Emmanuel Macron.

The future politician was just 15 when he began a relationship with then-married mother-of-three Brigitte Auzière, who was then 40 and taught drama at La Providence secondary school in Amiens, northern France.

As the French debated the unconventional personal life of their head of state, MailOnline obtained details of a judgment handed down last June by the Caen Court of Appeal.

The two defendants are Amandine Roy, a 52-year-old clairvoyant, and Natacha Rey, 48, who described herself as a freelance journalist.

Both had appeared on a four-hour YouTube video in December 2021 in which they claimed that Brigitte was born in 1953 as a boy named Jean-Michel Trogneux.

This is actually the name of Brigitte’s brother, and Mrs. Macron was called Brigitte Trogneux before her first marriage.

The defendants also claimed that Brigitte’s first husband, André-Louis Auzière, had never actually existed before his reported death in 2020, at the age of 68.

A judge in Lisieux, Normandy, initially fined the two women £1,700 each after they were both found guilty of defamation.

But after appeal, Roy was fined just £850, and Rey had £1,300 of her £1,700 fine suspended, meaning she only had to pay £400.

Witnesses called to court included Catherine and Jean-Louis Auzière, a childless couple living in Deauville, Normandy.

Jean-Louis Auzière was once Brigitte Macron’s uncle, when Brigitte was married to André-Louis Auzière.

Natacha Ray alleged that Jean-Louis Auzière had falsified administrative documents to conceal a “state secret”, namely that his wife had given birth to all three of Brigitte’s children, including Tiphaine Auzière.

But Jean-Louis Auzière told the court: ‘I worked with Brigitte until the late 1980s, I can confirm to you that she is not a man.’

The original complaint against Ray and Roy concerned invasion of privacy, violation of image rights and violation of personality rights, but the latest case concerned defamation.

Frédéric Pichon, Rey’s lawyer, said her investigation into Ms Macron was conducted “in good faith” and in accordance with Article 10 of the European Court of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to freedom of expression.

He expressed outrage that his client had been “placed in police custody twice during the case” and said: “I am shocked by the disproportionate resources used by the authorities to silence her.”

Mr Pichon added: “This looks like harassment coming from ultra-protected people. If the propositions she develops are so far-fetched, why pursue them so much?

“My client is not very rich, at least much less than those who are angry with her.”

All parties in the case accepted the “symbolic fines” imposed on appeal as a final settlement for what had caused enormous embarrassment to Mr and Mrs Macron.

The transphobic rumors about Mrs. Macron were picked up by the far right in 2022, while the president was campaigning for re-election.

Groups including the Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes) and those protesting Covid vaccines all used the claims to attack Mr Macron.

The video produced by Rey and Roy has since been removed from YouTube.

The Elysée Palace has not yet responded to comments from Tiphaine Auzière, who is promoting her new novel – a legal drama entitled ‘Assizes’, referring to a criminal court.

This is despite lurid headlines across France, such as the one in Gala, which reads: ‘Transphobic rumor about Brigitte Macron: why her daughter Tiphaine is worried’.

“I learned a lot about human nature,” Ms. Auzière said in the interview published Thursday, in which she also spoke about her mother’s relationship with Macron, resulting in her parents’ divorce.

“I know that in these moments we must focus on the essentials and move forward without regard for criticism,” she said of the transphobic rumors.

‘The attacks, the gossip, the judgments. It wasn’t yet the age of social networking, but we were in a small provincial town. Everything is known.

“Despite all this, they held on. I gained an open mind, a desire to move forward without listening to ambient noise, and a greater tolerance.”

Ms Auzière said she was particularly angry that her humiliated father, André-Louis Auzière, was forced to leave the family home in 1994, even though he only divorced Brigitte in 2006, allowing Macron to marry her a year later .

“A family separation can be a sadness and an opportunity,” Ms. Auzière said. ‘Recomposition can prove to be an enrichment.

“I have a beloved father and stepfather,” she added.