PARIS — PARIS (AP) — Brigitte Macron was facing criticism on Tuesday after video emerged of her using a slur to denounce feminist protesters.

The scene filmed Sunday showed France’s first lady in discussion backstage at the Folies Bergère 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, Brigitte 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.”

Her office said in a statement that she’d been trying to calm his nerves: “As the video shows, Mrs. Macron’s only intention was to reassure an artist who, in his dressing room before going on stage, had just told her, ‘I’m scared,’ because his show had been disrupted the previous evening.”

“In no way is she attacking a cause. She does, however, disapprove of the radical methods used to prevent an artist from performing on stage, as was the case on Saturday night.”

The feminist campaign group “Nous Toutes” (“All of Us”) said its activists disrupted Abittan’s show to protest what it described as “the culture of impunity” around sexual violence in France.

Magistrates terminated the investigation of the 2021 rape allegation against Abittan for lack of evidence in 2024, a decision then confirmed on appeal in January this year, according to French media.

In a statement on Instagram, Nous Toutes said: “We denounce venues that roll out a red carpet for men accused of rape, normalizing sexist and sexual violence. It is a public insult to the victims. Victims, we believe you. Rapists, we do not forgive you!”

Opponents of President Emmanuel Macron on the left-wing of French politics criticized his wife’s use of a sexist slur and some said she should apologize.

The critics included former French President François Hollande. Speaking to broadcaster RTL, Hollande said: “There’s a problem of vulgarity.”

But on the French far-right, National Rally lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy said Brigitte Macron’s comments were delivered in private and “stolen.”

“If each of us were filmed backstage saying things with friends, I think there would be plenty to comment on,” he told broadcaster BFMTV. “All of this is very hypocritical.”