Ten convicted of digital abuse against Brigitte Macron

A French judicial body has convicted ten people for perpetrating the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.

The defendants faced charges of spreading untruths regarding her sex and sexual orientation, in addition to publishing malicious remarks about the husband and wife's age disparity of 24 years.

The court handed down conditional custodial sentences of up to eight months to the defendants. The complete verdict has not yet been published.

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

This latest legal outcome in France is concurrent with the Macrons initiating a libel case in the United States of America against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted similar conspiracy theories about the first lady's identity.

Their complaint states that Owens disregarded substantial counter-evidence disproving her claim choosing instead to platforming known conspiracy theorists.

Owens has frequently reiterated these assertions on her digital program and social media channels, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would bet her whole career on her conviction that Mrs. Macron was born a man.

Brigitte Macron first met her now-husband when she was a teacher at his lycée.

The two tied the knot in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was 54.