A group of ten convicted of cyber-bullying targeting Brigitte Macron

A court in Paris has ruled against ten people for carrying out the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.

The accused individuals faced allegations of spreading untruths regarding her sex and sexual orientation, in addition to posting malicious remarks about the couple's age disparity of 24 years.

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

A persistent false narrative alleging that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has existed since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.

This latest legal outcome in France is concurrent with the Macrons initiating a legal action for defamation in the United States against political commentator Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted similar conspiracy theories about the first lady's identity.

Their complaint contends that Owens ignored substantial counter-evidence contradicting her allegations choosing instead to amplify the voices of notorious conspiracy peddlers.

Owens has often echoed these claims on her digital program and social networks, and in March 2024 declared that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.

Brigitte Macron first met her future husband when she was a teacher at his high school.

The couple tied the knot in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.