Emmanuel Macron's wife to sue over false claims she is transgender

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron. Photo / Getty Images

The First Lady of France is suing over claims that she was born a man.

Emmanuel Macron's wife, Brigitte Macron, intends to file legal proceedings against a disinformation campaign that portraits her as a transgender person.

The viral campaign has been spreading online over the last few days, spreading the rumour that the French president's wife was born a man.

With the Presidential elections in the country less than four months away, the First Lady intends to file a legal complaint.

Her lawyer, Jean Ennochi, told AFP that the legal proceedings are "in process" but would not give any additional details.

The claim that Brigitte Macron is transgender has been growing in momentum over the last few days, and been mixed with transphobic comments.

Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte. Photo / Getty Images

Emmanuel Macron is seeking re-election in April. While the couple's relationship has attracted commentary for a while, due to their age difference (his wife is 24 years his senior), the disinformation campaign is a recent development.

The false claims allege that Brigitte Macron was born a man named Jean-Michel.

The first time the claim appeared on social media seems to have been on Facebook in March, in a post by a user named "Natacha Rey". The Facebook page in question is full of conspiracy theories.

From there, it appears that the false claims escalated, with one Facebook user making up the conspiracy theory that Brigitte Macron is a "satanist paedo-criminal transgender".

An alt-right website published these claims in October. Not long after, the hashtag #JeanMichelTrogneux appeared for the first time on Twitter, on November 1.

During the 2017 campaign when Macron was elected president, he had to publicly deny claims about his alleged homosexuality.