Brigitte Macron's gender changed to male on tax forms by hackers

Mrs Macron has been falsely claimed to have been born a male and that her real name was Jean-Michel Trogneux.

Her maiden name is Trogneux and she has a brother called Jean-Michel.

People have been hacking into her personal tax account and changing her name to "Jean-Michel, known as Brigitte Macron", Mrs Macron's Chief of Staff Tristan Bromet has said.

Mr Bromet revealed the detail in an interview with a French news channel where he recounted how President Emmanuel Macron's wife was stunned to see that her legal name had been changed when logging into her personal tax account.

"We were completely surprised," Mr Bromet said.

"I tried it again with her, and sure enough. It's a section reserved for your username, so it can't be changed."

Mrs Macron filed a complaint and two people involved in the hacking were identified.

Mr Bromet did not say when the incident happened.

His interview is part of a documentary ahead of a trial starting on Monday in the Paris Criminal Court where eight men and two women are facing allegations of sexist cyberbullying against Mrs Macron.

Mr and Mrs Macron have also filed a separate lawsuit against conservative influencer Candace Owens.

Ms Owens produced an eight-part podcast series which claimed Mrs Macron is transgender.

The defendants in the trial in France include an elected official, gallery owner, teacher, medium and a computer scientist.

They range in age between 41-60.

They stand accused of making a number of malicious comments about Mrs Macron and equating the age difference with her husband - 24 years - with "paedophilia".

41-year-old advertising executive Aurelien Poirson-Atlan posted under the pseudonym Zoe Sagan and was identified as one of the people who allegedly spread lies and conspiracy theories.

He is also accused of sharing explicit videos of the President's mayoral candidate for Paris in 2020, Benjamin Griveaux.

Mr Griveaux was forced to withdraw from the race after being accused of sending sexual content to a woman who was not his wife.

Delphne Jegousse, 51, under the pseudonym Amandine Roy, will be back in court after being cleared of defamation charges by a French court in July.

She will face cyberbullying charges.

Ms Jegousse and Natacha Rey falsely claimed Mrs Macron was a man and described the first lady as a "swindle".

Their rumours resurfaced when Ms Owens released her series "Becoming Brigitte".

The couple’s lawyer said Mrs Macron would present photographic and scientific evidence to prove to an American court that she is a biological woman.