PARIS, France (AFP) – A court on Thursday ordered two women to pay 8,000 euros in damages to French First Lady Brigitte Macron after making false claims she was transgender, sparking online rumour-mongering by conspiracy theorists and the far right.

Brigitte Macron filed a libel complaint against two women who posted a YouTube video in December 2021 alleging the French president’s wife had once been a man named “Jean-Michel”.

The claim went viral just weeks before the 2022 presidential election.

Posts spread on social media claiming that the first lady, formerly Brigitte Trogneux, had never existed and that her brother Jean-Michel had changed gender and assumed that identity.

A Paris court sentenced the two defendants to pay a total of 8,000 euros ($8,800) in damages to the president’s wife, and 5,000 euros ($5,500) to her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux.

They were also handed a suspended fine of 500 euros.

Brigitte Macron, 71, did not attend the trial in June and was not present for the ruling.

Defendant Amandine Roy, a self-proclaimed spiritual medium, interviewed Natacha Rey, a self-described independent journalist, for four hours on her YouTube channel.

Rey spoke about the “state lie” and “scam” that she claimed to have uncovered.

The disinformation even spread to the United States where Brigitte Macron was attacked in a now deleted YouTube video ahead of the November elections.

Rey was ill during the trial, but did not manage to have it postponed.

Former US first lady Michelle Obama, US Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris and New Zealand ex-premier Jacinda Ardern have also been the target of disinformation about their gender or sexuality in a bid to mock or humiliate them.

Also on Thursday, Brigitte Macron made her Netflix debut playing herself in the hit series “Emily in Paris”.

The show’s star Lily Collins told Elle magazine the idea came to her and programme creator Darren Star when they met the first lady at the Elysee Palace in December 2022.