Which famous world leader is famed for the saying, "Let them eat cake", yet is rumored that he/she never said it at all?

Marie Antoinette is famously linked to “Let them eat cake” (originally “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”), but historians agree she likely never said it. The line appears in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, written when Marie was a child, and there’s no contemporary evidence tying the quote to her. During the French Revolution, enemies used it as propaganda to paint the queen as oblivious to the suffering of the poor. Context clue: brioche is a rich, eggy bread—not exactly “cake”—which sharpened the image of royal excess. To remember: “Marie Antoinette—Antoin-’t she didn’t say it.” The myth persists because it neatly captures the disconnect between monarchy and the starving populace, but it’s a powerful story, not a verified quote.