Ten individuals sentenced of digital abuse against Brigitte Macron
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A Paris court has convicted ten people for engaging in the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced charges of circulating fabrications regarding her sex and sexual orientation, in addition to making defamatory statements about the pair's significant age difference.
The court delivered suspended prison sentences of as much as eight months to the perpetrators. The detailed judgment has still to be made public.
A persistent false narrative suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has been in circulation since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.
This Monday's court decision in France comes as the Macrons pursuing a defamation lawsuit in the United States against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared comparable unfounded claims about the French president's wife's biological sex.
Their lawsuit states that Owens brushed aside substantial counter-evidence that refuted her assertions choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.
Owens has regularly repeated these claims on her podcast and online platforms, and in March 2024 stated that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her conviction that Mrs. Macron was born a man.
Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her current spouse when she taught at his high school.
The pair tied the knot in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.