Ten individuals found guilty of online harassment directed at Brigitte Macron

A Paris court has convicted ten people for carrying out the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President, Emmanuel Macron.

The defendants faced allegations of disseminating fabrications regarding her sex and sexuality, in addition to making malicious remarks about the couple's age disparity of 24 years.

The court handed down suspended jail terms of as much as eight months to the perpetrators. The full ruling has yet to be released.

A persistent false narrative suggesting 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 comes as the Macrons engaging in a defamation lawsuit in the United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted similar conspiracy theories about the French president's wife's gender.

Their legal filing alleges that Owens brushed aside substantial counter-evidence contradicting her allegations choosing instead to amplify the voices of notorious conspiracy peddlers.

Owens has regularly repeated these assertions on her podcast and social networks, and in March 2024 declared that she would bet her whole career on her conviction that Mrs. Macron was born a man.

Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her current spouse when she worked as an educator at his high school.

The couple tied the knot in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.