Ten individuals sentenced of cyber-bullying directed at Brigitte Macron

A French judicial body has ruled against ten people for engaging in the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.

The defendants faced accusations of spreading fabrications regarding her sex and sexual orientation, in addition to publishing hurtful comments about the pair's age disparity of 24 years.

The court issued suspended jail terms of a maximum of eight months to the convicted individuals. The detailed judgment has not yet been published.

A circulating conspiracy theory claiming that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has spread widely since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.

This recent ruling in France comes as the Macrons initiating a defamation lawsuit in the United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced comparable unfounded claims about the French president's wife's gender.

Their complaint contends that Owens ignored any factual proof contradicting her allegations choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has regularly repeated these allegations on her show and social networks, and in March 2024 stated that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her belief that Mrs. Macron was born a man.

Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her current spouse when she taught at his secondary school.

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