Her name will forever be linked to one of the most sensational and far-reaching rumours to have surrounded a French public figure in recent years. Natacha Rey, who first put forward the theory that Brigitte Macron was born a man under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, died on 13 September 2026 in Saintes, in Charente-Maritime. Her death, announced on 18 September by Xavier Poussard, is attributed to cancer, from which she had been suffering for several years.
Natacha Rey described herself as a freelance, self-taught journalist. It was particularly from 2021 onwards that her name became known to the general public when, during a very long interview with Amandine Roy broadcast on YouTube, she revealed the findings of research she claimed to have been conducting for several years into Brigitte Macron.
Her theory was staggering: according to her, Brigitte Macron had concealed her identity and was in fact born a man, under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux — who is officially Brigitte Macron’s brother. No conclusive evidence has substantiated this claim. Yet the rumour was to take on a remarkable life of its own: initially confined to certain French online circles, it was widely shared on social media before crossing the Atlantic and being picked up, notably in the United States, by the conservative influencer Candace Owens.
The case then became as much a legal matter as a media one.
In September 2024, Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy were found guilty at first instance of defamation against Brigitte Macron and her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux. But in a major twist, on 10 July 2025, the Paris Court of Appeal acquitted the two women.
This decision was immediately presented by some of Natacha Rey’s supporters as confirmation of her research. This is legally inaccurate. An acquittal on a defamation charge does not mean that the courts recognise as true the claim that Brigitte Macron was born a man. On the contrary, the court’s reasoning shows that the judges did not rule in that sense. In the case of certain allegations, they considered that they did not legally constitute an attack on honour; in another instance, good faith was taken into account. The court also noted the ‘inconsistencies and weaknesses’ in certain elements put forward by Natacha Rey.
This is a crucial distinction in a case where the law, the facts and their interpretation on social media have constantly clashed.
Natacha Rey announced in 2024 that she had cancer and had publicly spoken of a very bleak prognosis. According to the information available today, she died on 13 September in Saintes and was buried on 18 September at Saint-Pallais Cemetery.
Her death is unlikely to bring the ‘Brigitte Macron affair’ to a close. The case has since taken on an international dimension. In particular, in 2025, Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron brought a defamation case in the United States against Candace Owens following the widespread circulation of this theory across the Atlantic.
But the death of Natacha Rey marks the passing of the person through whom, in France, it all – or almost all – began.
And her story perhaps reveals something even more significant than the rumour itself: the now phenomenal power of information originating on the fringes of the internet. A single person can investigate, publish a hypothesis, be picked up by a few accounts, then by thousands, cross borders and ultimately trigger legal proceedings involving the French presidential couple.
Natacha Rey can be seen as a tenacious investigator or as one of the main propagators of a massive piece of fake news. These two interpretations continue to clash today. One thing, however, is indisputable: a claim that originated in a small French online community has become a global affair.
And perhaps that, ultimately, is the real issue.
In the age of social media, a rumour no longer needs to be proven to become a major story. It simply needs to be extraordinary enough for millions of people to want to believe it.
