Ten sentenced of cyber-bullying against Brigitte Macron
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A French judicial body has ruled against ten people for perpetrating the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced allegations of circulating false claims regarding her gender identity and sexual orientation, in addition to posting hurtful comments about the pair's significant age difference.
The court issued conditional custodial sentences of up to eight months to the perpetrators. The full ruling has still to be made public.
A persistent unfounded claim claiming that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has been in circulation since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.
This recent ruling in France coincides with the Macrons pursuing a defamation lawsuit in the US against political commentator Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted similar conspiracy theories about the French president's wife's biological sex.
Their legal filing alleges that Owens ignored any factual proof disproving her claim in favour of platforming known conspiracy theorists.
Owens has often echoed these allegations on her podcast and online platforms, and in March 2024 stated that she would bet her whole career on her belief that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her current spouse when she taught at his secondary school.
The couple entered into matrimony in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was 54.
