A group of ten convicted of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron

A Paris court has ruled against ten people for engaging in the digital intimidation of Brigitte Macron, the partner of French President, Emmanuel Macron.

The accused individuals faced accusations of disseminating fabrications regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to posting hurtful comments about the couple's age disparity of 24 years.

The court handed down suspended prison sentences of up to eight months to the perpetrators. The detailed judgment has still to be made public.

A circulating unfounded claim claiming that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has existed since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.

This recent ruling in France is concurrent with the Macrons pursuing a defamation lawsuit in the United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted similar conspiracy theories about the French president's wife's gender.

Their complaint states that Owens ignored substantial counter-evidence that refuted her assertions in favour of give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has regularly repeated these allegations on her show and social media channels, and in March 2024 proclaimed 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 two married in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.