A group of ten found guilty of digital abuse targeting Brigitte Macron
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A Paris court has convicted ten people for perpetrating the digital intimidation of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
The accused individuals faced charges of disseminating untruths regarding her gender identity and sexual orientation, in addition to making hurtful comments about the couple's 24-year age gap.
The court handed down suspended jail terms of up to eight months to the perpetrators. The complete verdict has not yet been published.
A circulating conspiracy theory alleging that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has been in circulation since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.
This latest legal outcome in France is concurrent with the Macrons initiating a legal action for defamation in the US against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted analogous false narratives about the French president's wife's biological sex.
Their legal filing states that Owens ignored substantial counter-evidence disproving her claim in favour of amplify the voices of notorious conspiracy peddlers.
Owens has often echoed these assertions on her podcast and social media channels, and in March 2024 stated that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her conviction that Mrs. Macron was born a man.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her now-husband when she worked as an educator at his lycée.
The couple married in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.