Ten found guilty of online harassment directed at Brigitte Macron

A French judicial body has found guilty ten people for carrying out the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President, Emmanuel Macron.

The defendants faced allegations of circulating false claims regarding her sex and sexuality, in addition to publishing malicious remarks about the pair's significant age difference.

The court handed down suspended prison sentences of a maximum of eight months to the defendants. The full ruling has yet to be released.

A circulating conspiracy theory suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has spread widely since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.

This recent ruling in France coincides with the Macrons pursuing a defamation lawsuit in the US against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced comparable unfounded claims about the French president's wife's identity.

Their complaint contends that Owens disregarded all credible evidence that refuted her assertions opting to give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has frequently reiterated these assertions on her digital program and online platforms, and in March 2024 stated that she would risk all her credibility on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.

Brigitte Macron initially encountered her future husband when she was a teacher at his secondary school.

The pair entered into matrimony in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.