Does Brigitte Macron have a penis?

Geopolitics, biology and litigation: the symbolic war orbiting Brigitte Macron. An inquiry into the facts, photographs and extramarital entanglements that pushed millions of people, including Candace Owens, to believe the French First Lady was born a man.

France is preparing a legal spectacle without precedent: presenting scientific evidence of Brigitte Macron’s biological sex to a U.S. court. A fringe theory set it off. A presidential response amplified it. Noise turned into geopolitics.

France is on the verge of producing the most improbable scene in contemporary Western politics: a presidential couple vowing to present “photographic and scientific proof” of the First Lady’s biology to a U.S. court.

The reason is simple, and absurd. Brigitte Macron became the target of a theory that crossed borders, factions and languages: the claim that she was born male. The French government decided to respond with force. And that reaction, more than the theory itself, is the point.

The escalation

The Macrons are suing American podcaster Candace Owens, who released an eight-episode series arguing that Brigitte, née Trogneux, is trans. Owens says she is willing to “bet her entire career” on the accusation. The lawyer hired by the Macrons is Thomas Clare, a defamation specialist known for defending Sarah Palin and Adam Neumann.

The case will be intrusive. The lawyer admits as much. Even so, the Élysée is unwavering. And that fuels something bigger: a conspiracy theory that has already become public debate in France and is now arriving in the U.S. as cultural and political ammunition.

Origin: an amateur investigator

The theory did not begin with the American right but with a Frenchwoman: Natacha Rey, living near Bordeaux, who began investigating Brigitte in 2018.

Rey spent years analyzing physical features, old photographs, alleged biographical inconsistencies and the absence of images of Brigitte as a young woman or pregnant. She consulted dermatologists, plastic surgeons, dentists, endocrinologists. She concluded that Brigitte was in fact Jean-Michel Trogneux, her older brother.

The photos supporting the hypothesis are few, grainy, and endlessly interpretable. Jean-Michel’s alleged disappearance reinforces the narrative; recent photos of him next to Brigitte are treated by conspiracists as “tricks” or fabrications.

Nothing conclusive. Only gaps. And for those already convinced, a gap counts as evidence.

No proof, but an excess of reaction

The blind spot in this debate is straightforward: there is no concrete evidence that Brigitte is trans. Only theory, coincidences, noise, and a major lack of public records about her youth—common for middle-class French figures in the pre-internet era.

But what does exist, without question, is an aggressive state response.

Rey’s investigation was published in 2021 in the newsletter Faits et Documents. Shortly after, she claims police raided her home and seized her phone. There is no official confirmation. Only government silence. And silence breeds suspicion.

The Macrons sued Rey and her interlocutor, Amandine Roy. They were convicted, then acquitted on appeal. The case continues.

Candace Owens received a formal notice. She replied with a provocative questionnaire (“Was Brigitte born male?”). The couple did not answer. She kept attacking.

The social layer: forbidden relations and genuine taboos

The most explosive element in the story has nothing to do with gender transition.

It is the uncontested fact that Brigitte initiated an emotional—and possibly sexual—relationship with Emmanuel Macron when he was 15 and she was 39. She was his teacher. She was married. Her daughter was in his class. Emmanuel’s parents intervened. The relationship continued.

This episode has always been too uncomfortable for the French political class. It touches a taboo the country never digested. And it is this gray zone—more than biology—that keeps the story alive.

The political layer: power, honor and speech

France has a paradoxical relationship with expression.

On one hand, free speech is a political weapon, a direct heir of the revolutionary tradition. Citizens speak to confront power. On the other, personal honor is treated as a legal asset: defamation can land you in prison.

In this climate, the theory gained traction because it strikes deep triggers.

• historical distrust of central power
• repulsion toward “royal” or dynastic secrets
• resentment over pandemic restrictions
• fascination with sexual and biological taboos
• the natural erosion of an unpopular presidency

And, of course, the global amplification machine of the American right.

What remains when the foam settles

Brigitte Macron is very likely not trans. The hypothesis is flimsy, built on old images and elastic interpretations. But the French state’s disproportionate response is real. And wherever institutions show fear, sensitive information exists.

No one knows which.
But it exists.

And that alone sustains theories.

France is the country that toppled kings. Where political satire is civic duty. Where republican ritual coexists with a brutal realism about power.

The question is not whether Brigitte Macron has a penis.
The question is why a democracy feels compelled to prove in court that its First Lady is a woman.

In politics, when you must prove the obvious, it’s because the obvious has already stopped working.