A group of ten convicted of digital abuse directed at Brigitte Macron
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A French judicial body has ruled against ten people for engaging in the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The accused individuals faced charges of disseminating fabrications regarding her sex and sexuality, in addition to publishing malicious remarks about the couple's 24-year age gap.
The court handed down suspended prison sentences of as much as eight months to the perpetrators. The detailed judgment has still to be made public.
A circulating unfounded claim alleging that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has existed since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.
This recent ruling in France comes as the Macrons pursuing a defamation lawsuit in the US against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced analogous false narratives about the first lady's identity.
Their legal filing alleges that Owens disregarded substantial counter-evidence disproving her claim in favour of give a platform to established defamers.
Owens has regularly repeated these allegations on her podcast and online platforms, and in March 2024 declared that she would bet her whole career on her belief that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her future husband when she worked as an educator at his lycée.
The couple entered into matrimony in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.
