Overview

• On July 14, Brigitte Macron and her brother filed appeals at the Court de Cassation challenging the Paris appeals court’s decision.
• On July 10, the Paris appeals court overturned earlier libel convictions of Amandine Roy and Natacha Rey, ruling their gender-rumor allegations were protected expression.
• The lawsuit traces back to a December 2021 YouTube broadcast in which the defendants falsely claimed Macron was born male as her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux.
• In September 2024, a lower court ordered Roy and Rey to pay €8,000 in damages to Brigitte Macron and €5,000 to her brother.
• The dispute illustrates tensions between defamation law and free-speech protections as gender-based conspiracies continue to target prominent women online.