Ten sentenced of online harassment against Brigitte Macron

A Paris court has ruled against ten people for perpetrating the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the partner of French President, Emmanuel Macron.

The defendants faced accusations of spreading false claims regarding her gender and sexual orientation, in addition to publishing malicious remarks about the pair's significant age difference.

The court handed down suspended prison sentences of a maximum of eight months to the defendants. The complete verdict has yet to be released.

A persistent false narrative suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has spread widely since her husband's initial election in 2017.

This recent ruling in France is concurrent with the Macrons engaging in a libel case in the US against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced analogous false narratives about the French president's wife's biological sex.

Their lawsuit states that Owens ignored substantial counter-evidence that refuted her assertions choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has regularly repeated these assertions on her digital program and social media channels, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her belief that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.

Brigitte Macron initially encountered her current spouse when she was a teacher at his lycée.

The pair tied the knot in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.