Ten found guilty of online harassment against Brigitte Macron

A Paris court has found guilty ten people for engaging in the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.

The defendants faced allegations of circulating untruths regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to posting malicious remarks about the couple's age disparity of 24 years.

The court issued conditional custodial sentences of as much as eight months to the convicted individuals. The full ruling has not yet been published.

A longstanding conspiracy theory claiming that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has spread widely since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.

This Monday's court decision in France is concurrent with the Macrons initiating a defamation lawsuit in the US against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared similar conspiracy theories about the Brigitte Macron's biological sex.

Their lawsuit contends that Owens ignored any factual proof disproving her claim choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has often echoed these assertions on her digital program and social media channels, and in March 2024 stated that she would risk all her credibility on her conviction that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.

Brigitte Macron first met her future husband when she was a teacher at his secondary school.

The pair entered into matrimony in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was 54.