Ten sentenced of cyber-bullying against Brigitte Macron
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A Paris court has ruled against ten people for perpetrating the digital intimidation of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced accusations of circulating false claims regarding her gender identity and sexual orientation, in addition to posting malicious remarks about the pair's significant age difference.
The court issued suspended jail terms of up to eight months to the perpetrators. The complete verdict has still to be made public.
A longstanding unfounded claim suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has existed since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.
This Monday's court decision in France comes as the Macrons initiating a defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared analogous false narratives about the first lady's biological sex.
Their lawsuit alleges that Owens brushed aside substantial counter-evidence that refuted her assertions in favour of platforming known conspiracy theorists.
Owens has often echoed these assertions on her podcast and social media channels, and in March 2024 stated that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her insistence that Mrs. Macron was born a man.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her now-husband when she worked as an educator at his high school.
The couple married in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was 54.
