Ten individuals convicted of digital abuse against Brigitte Macron
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A French judicial body has ruled against ten people for carrying out the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced accusations of spreading false claims regarding her gender and sexual orientation, in addition to posting hurtful comments about the pair's 24-year age gap.
The court issued conditional custodial sentences of up to eight months to the convicted individuals. The full ruling has yet to be released.
A persistent unfounded claim suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has spread widely since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.
This latest legal outcome in France coincides with the Macrons initiating a defamation lawsuit in the US against political commentator Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted comparable unfounded claims about the first lady's identity.
Their complaint states that Owens brushed aside any factual proof contradicting her allegations choosing instead to amplify the voices of notorious conspiracy peddlers.
Owens has regularly repeated these allegations on her podcast and online platforms, and in March 2024 stated that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.
Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her future husband when she worked as an educator at his high school.
The couple entered into matrimony in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.