EXCLUSIVE Insider reveals Brigitte Macron's secret turmoil over claims she was born a man - and the battle against trolls and conspiracy theorists that has driven her to despair
But lately she has made a number of missteps - being seen apparently ignoring and even slapping her President husband.
Now MailOnline can reveal that her recent discomfort in the public eye is informed by a losing battle against a small army of trolls and conspiracy theorists which has driven her to despair.
We have learned that online abuse of the 72-year-old wife of President Emmanuel Macron, 47, has 'intensified significantly' in recent days.
The cue for this was a shock court ruling at which judges effectively sanctioned outlandish claims including that she was 'born a man' and that she had 'sexually abused' her future husband when he was a boy.
Ms Macron had hoped that the defamation case would finally bring an end to her years of torment by online trolls - but instead it has unleashed a new wave of abuse.
And Ms Macron is 'absolutely devastated' by last week's Paris Appeal Court ruling, sources have told us.
That cast exonerated two of her biggest critics, Amandine Roy, a 53-year-old clairvoyant, and blogger Natacha Rey, 49.
The case centred on a YouTube video posted by the pair in December 2021, making multiple poisonous claims about Ms Macron - which originally lead to the pair being found guilty of libel and fined.
But all 18 challenges against their allegations have now been struck out, because they were 'made in good faith' and repeated claims that were already in the public domain.
After the convictions were dismissed, supporters of Roy and Rey hailed a landmark legal victory.
François Danglehant, one of the defendants' lawyers, said they had been 'hunted, persecuted and condemned' but were now free to express their opinions.
In turn, counsel for Ms Macron are taking the case to the Court of Cassation – one that can quash an Appeal Court decision.
'The situation is now intolerable,' said a legal source involved in the case.
'Those attacking Madame Macron now think they can say what they like, without any consequences.
'It is a disgraceful turn of events, and one that commentators all over the world are taking full advantage of.
'The abuse has certainly intensified – it has increased since this judgement'.
Candace Owens, the American media commentator and author, is among those who exclaimed 'We won! We won!' following Ms Macron's legal setback.
She said she would 'stake my entire professional career on the fact that Brigitte Macron, the current First Lady of France, was born a man…'
Ms Owens also claimed: 'Brigitte was never attacking the claim that she was born a man. She was being super petty and trying to get them on a technicality of defamation for misspeaking.'
In fact, Appeal Court sources have denied that the annulling of the libel convictions means the Roy and Rey claims are true.
The ruling – which Mail Online has studied in detail – simply states that the majority of their comments 'did not fall within the legal definition of defamation.'
One out of 18 points may have been a 'technical libel', and that was the 'shameful claim' that Ms Macron abused her future husband when he was a boy, said the Appeal Court source.
'However, the court dismissed this libel claim too,' said the source. 'Because it found that the women were acting in good faith, by basing their opinions on well-known facts.'
These included the fact that Emmanuel Macron was only 15 when he first grew close to the future Ms Macron, who was then his 40-year-old married teacher in their home town of Amiens, northern France.
It was also noted that Emmanuel Macron's parents, both doctors, never reported the relationship to the authorities.
This meant a crime could have taken place, but it was now outside the statute of limitations for prosecution.
It was Natacha Rey who was the principal source of the claim that Brigitte Macron was born a boy.
But the legal source said: 'The principal question is whether a complainant was dishonoured. In this case, there is nothing dishonourable about being transgender.'
France's Freedom of the Press law of 1881 states that 'Any allegation that harms the honour or reputation of the person or entity to whom the fact is attributed is defamation.'
The Court of Appeal judges said many of the Roy and Rey claims were 'too imprecise' or 'incoherent' to 'to determine a sufficiently precise accusation' that 'falls within the legal definition of defamation'.
The Macron marriage has always been subjected to vicious speculation, because of its beginnings.
It was in 1992 , when the future president was a schoolboy at La Providence high school Amiens, that he first developed deep affection for his drama teacher, the then Brigitte Auzière, who was married with three young children.
Some claim the relationship became a dangerously irresponsible one – allegations both parties have always denied – but Ms Macron later admitted that being romantically linked 'with such a young boy was crippling,' especially in a Roman Catholic community.
She spoke of the rumours her own boy and two girls – one a classmate of young Emmanuel – had to deal with, saying: 'You can imagine what they were hearing. But I didn't want to miss out on my life.'
The couple finally wed in 2007, a decade before Mr Macron came from nowhere to win the French presidency as an independent candidate.
Jean Ennochi, Ms Macron's lawyer, confirmed that his client would be 'appealing to the Court of Cassation' over the quashing of the libel convictions.
The legal defeat is not the only torment to affect Ms Macron lately - MailOnline revealed last week that her older sister, to whom she was particularly close, had died.
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