Ten individuals convicted of cyber-bullying directed at Brigitte Macron

A French judicial body has convicted ten people for carrying out the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.

The accused individuals faced charges of circulating fabrications regarding her sex and sexuality, in addition to making malicious remarks about the pair's significant age difference.

The court delivered conditional custodial sentences of a maximum of eight months to the convicted individuals. The complete verdict has yet to be released.

A circulating unfounded claim claiming 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 coincides with the Macrons pursuing a legal action for defamation in the United States against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared comparable unfounded claims about the Brigitte Macron's biological sex.

Their legal filing alleges that Owens disregarded all credible evidence disproving her claim opting 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 declared that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her conviction that Mrs. Macron was born a man.

Brigitte Macron first met her now-husband when she taught at his secondary school.

The pair married in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.