Journalist who called Macron's wife a man has asked for asylum in Russia

Journalist Natacha Rey, who accused French President Emmanuel Macron's wife of having a sex change, has asked for political asylum in Russia. This was announced by her lawyer Francois Dangléan on his page in the social network X (former Twitter).

Rey is seeking political asylum from a Russian State Duma deputy because of judicial harassment, Dangléan said in a January 31 post.

The lawyer noted that for three years the journalist conducted an investigation to verify the official biography of Macron's wife, and then published its results on Facebook (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia). According to Dangléan, the charges against Rey are "fabricated".

At the same time, the defense counsel did not specify whether an official request had been filed and to which agency.

Since Macron's election to the presidency in 2017, the media began to spread rumors that his wife Brigitte actually went by the name Jean-Michel and was a man. In December 2021, Rey published an article claiming that she had been investigating the French First Lady for several years. The author of the article claimed that the findings that she was born in a man's body were not taken from the ceiling.

In January 2022, the French First Lady announced her intention to sue the spreaders of such rumors on the Internet. She sued Rey and Delphine Gégousse, known online as the medium Amandine Roy. However, in March 2023, the court dismissed Brigitte Macron's lawsuit for invasion of privacy and image rights. It is noted that she filed another one - for public defamation.

In March last year, Macron for the first time publicly criticized the media for spreading false information that his wife was allegedly born a man.

On June 20, 2024 it was reported that in France began a trial against the two women. On September 12, a Paris court sentenced Rey and Jegousse to a fine of €13,500 for defamation.