Ten individuals sentenced of digital abuse against Brigitte Macron

A Paris court has convicted ten people for perpetrating the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the partner of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.

The defendants faced charges of disseminating false claims regarding her gender identity and sexual orientation, in addition to making hurtful comments about the couple's age disparity of 24 years.

The court issued suspended prison sentences of as much as eight months to the defendants. The detailed judgment has still to be made public.

A persistent conspiracy theory claiming that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has been in circulation since her husband's initial election in 2017.

This latest legal outcome in France comes as the Macrons initiating a defamation lawsuit in the US against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared comparable unfounded claims about the first lady's identity.

Their complaint contends that Owens brushed aside any factual proof that refuted her assertions in favour of give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has regularly repeated these claims on her digital program and online platforms, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would risk all her credibility on her conviction that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.

Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her current spouse when she taught at his secondary school.

The two married in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.