Ten individuals found guilty of digital abuse targeting Brigitte Macron

A Paris court has ruled against ten people for carrying out the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.

The accused individuals faced allegations of circulating false claims regarding her gender identity and sexuality, in addition to publishing hurtful comments about the couple's significant age difference.

The court issued suspended prison sentences of as much as eight months to the perpetrators. The full ruling has yet to be released.

A persistent false narrative alleging that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has spread widely since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.

This recent ruling in France comes as the Macrons engaging in a legal action for defamation in the US against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced similar conspiracy theories about the French president's wife's biological sex.

Their lawsuit states that Owens ignored any factual proof contradicting her allegations opting to give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has regularly repeated these assertions on her podcast and online platforms, and in March 2024 stated that she would bet her whole career on her conviction that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.

Brigitte Macron first met her now-husband when she worked as an educator at his high school.

The two tied the knot in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.