Brigitte Macron fights trolls who claim she's trans in court

In 1993, it was a “coup de foudre” — love at first sight — for the teenage boy and his much-older teacher at a high school in northern France.

But in recent years gossip about their relationship has meant some “nuites blanches” — sleepless nights — for French President Emmanuel Macron, 46, and his elegant wife Brigitte, 71.

The Macrons have been so upset about longstanding rumors Brigitte was born a man, the First Lady took the unusual step of taking two of her accusers to a criminal court in Paris Wednesday to sue them for defamation.

Only one of Brigitte’s alleged tormenters, Amandine Roy, a Youtuber and self-described “spiritual medium,” was in court for the intial hearing in the case. The other, Natacha Rey, was said to be ill.

Brigitte Macron did not attend either, just her attorney.

Roy and Rey are on the hot seat for spreading rumors online just before the French presidential elections in 2022 that Brigitte Macron is transgender woman and used to be a man named “Jean-Michel” — rumors that were picked up in the US, notably by right-wing influencer Candace Owens who has continued to post videos insisting the “elite” in France have hidden the truth about Brigitte’s origins.

Roy was less bold in court Wednesday than in her Youtube videos, claiming Rey had been “desperate to share her work,” which she had “spent three years researching.” She said she had merely “acquiesced to [Rey’s] request,” when making the claims on her channel, adding: “My regret is that this wasn’t taken up and investigated by the mainstream media.”

She said that she could not bring herself to “hide” such a “serious” topic.

As the rumors took root ahead of the 2022 elections, they developed into a theory that Brigitte had never existed and her brother, who is named Jean-Michel had swapped gender and assumed the identity.

The court case comes as France again prepares to head to the polls after Macron called a snap election for June 30 after his party lost out heavily to the National Rally party headed by Marine Le Pen in European Parliament elections.

The court case — which will be decided on Sept. 12 — may be the one hurdle the Macrons never expected in their once-scandalous romance that caught fire not long after they met at the private, Jesuit-run Lycée La Providence in Amiens, France.

Brigitte Trogneux Auzière was a 39-year-old married mother of three who taught drama, among other subjects, at the school. The daughter of a well-to-do chocolatier; her husband, André-Louis Auzière, was a banker. Her daughter, Laurence, was a classmate of Macron, then 15, at the high school.

But she and the precocious Macron, a straight-A student, were instantly smitten despite disapproval from pretty much everyone, including their families.

Macron’s horrified parents even sent him to Paris for his senior year of high school to get him away from Brigitte – but it didn’t work.

“Writing brought us together every Friday and sparked an incredible closeness He gained great influence over me,” Brigitte once said about their first months together in a French interview.

“I felt like I was slipping, so did he. [He went] to Paris for his final year. He assured me that he would come back. It was heartbreaking.

“We didn’t break the thread. On the contrary, it became passionate and at 17, Emmanuel declared to me: whatever you do, I will marry you! Love took everything in its path and led me to divorce. Impossible to resist him.”

But their passion took a toll. Brigitte’s husband left town in embarrassment not long after the romance exploded, never to be seen again, according to Maelle Brun, author of 2018’s “Brigitte Macron: An Unfettered Woman.”

The divorce dragged on and it was particularly hard on Macron’s three kids. The couple did not marry until 2007.

“I took time so I would not wreck their lives,” Brigitte told Paris Match last year.

“That lasted 10 years, the time to put them on the rails. You can imagine what they were hearing. But I didn’t want to miss out on my life.”

Brigitte may have thought the worst was behind her until Dec. 2021 when Rey, 50, a self-described freelance journalist and Roy, 54, who calls herself a clairvoyant, made a now-deleted YouTube video as part of Roy’s online show “Mediumisation,” in Dec. 2021 which they claimed that Brigitte was born as a baby boy called Jean-Michel Trogneux in 1953 – but that is the name of Brigitte’s brother.

Rey had also reached out to Xavier Poussard, the publisher of a right-wing news site called Faits et Documents who published her analysis and later investigated the charges himself and concluded they were true.

“Natacha is not a real journalist but I am,” Poussard told The Post on the phone from France Wednesday. “And I’m not crazy. I’ve done the investigation, I have the photos. Brigitte Macron is an untouchable subject in France — at least by the mainstream media.”

Poussard and the two women being sued by the Macrons also alleged Brigitte Macron’s first husband, André-Louis Auzière, had never actually existed before he died in 2019 at age 68 — and that Jean-Louis Auzière, André-Louis’ uncle, had forged administrative documents to hide that his wife had given birth to all of Brigitte’s three children, including her lookalike daughter, Tiphaine Auzière.

Poussard and others who believe that Brigitte is a man also point to a number of articles over the years that refer to Brigitte as only “20 years older” than her husband, when she is in fact 25 years older — and say he was 15 or 16 when they met. A few articles refer to him being only 14, which Poussard said is correct.

“It’s very taboo, everything about the age [Emmanuel] was when Brigitte met him,” Poussard said, pointing out their “relationship could fall under article 227-27 of the Penal Code, which enshrines the offense of sexual assault of a minor, and which now provides that a teacher who has sexual relations with a minor student aged over 15 years faces up to three years in prison.”

But Jean Ennochi, Brigitte’s lawyer, isn’t having it.

“It’s being said that [Brigitte’s] ex-husband was never born and neither was she,” Ennochi told Huffington Post France just before Wednesday’s trial. “But how could they have got married or appeared before a judge to get divorced? Are they both actors? Are all the legal documents fake?”

In response, François Danglehant, Rey’s attorney, said that Brigitte and her brother, who are both suing the women, “think they can silence a rumor through a trial. But it’s grotesque because in France people haven’t got much confidence in the justice system.”

Coverage of Wednesday’s trial was muted in France, but the average French citizen appears to think the topic is ridiculous.

“Look at her legs, look at her body, are you kidding, she’s the perfect Frenchwoman,” Katherine Penet, a French-American woman who has lived in Paris for decades told the Post.

“I think they’re absolutely wild for each other. I wish I had a man who looked at me and reached for me like Macron does with Brigitte.”

Macron, 46, has been unusually candid and emotional about the ongoing speculation in certain right-wing circles about Brigitte.

“The worst thing is the false information and fabricated scenarios,” Macron said at an International Women’s Day event in Paris in April after he guaranteed the right to abortion in France’s Constitution.

“People eventually believe them and disturb you, even in your intimacy.”