The scene filmed on Sunday showed France's first lady in discussion backstage at the Folies Bergere theatre in Paris with Ary Abittan, a French actor and humorist previously accused of rape, before a performance he was about to give. The previous night, feminist campaigners had disrupted his show with shouts of: Abittan, rapist! Before Sunday's performance, Macron asked him how he was feeling. When he said he was feeling scared, she made a derogatory and sexist reference to the women, adding: We'll toss them out.
The trial follows a defamation lawsuit filed in the United States by Macron and her husband, President Emmanuel Macron, at the end of July, in connection with the same claims promoted online that Brigitte Macron was assigned male at birth. Mme. Macron was absent as the trial opened, AFP reports. Eight men and two women, aged 41 to 60, are accused of cyber-harassment targeting the first lady.
The daughter of Brigitte Macron told a French court on Tuesday that unsubstantiated claims about her mother's gender had adversely affected the French first lady's health. Tiphaine Auziere, 41, spoke on the second day of the trial in Paris of 10 people accused of cyberbullying the 72-year-old first lady by amplifying rumours that she was assigned male at birth.
The Paris appeals court overturned earlier convictions against the two women for spreading the rumor that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman, which went viral online.