Ten found guilty of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron

A Paris court has convicted ten people for perpetrating the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the partner of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.

The accused individuals faced allegations of disseminating fabrications regarding her gender and sexual orientation, in addition to publishing malicious remarks about the couple's 24-year age gap.

The court handed down conditional custodial sentences of as much as eight months to the defendants. The detailed judgment has yet to be released.

A longstanding conspiracy theory suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman 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 United States against political commentator Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared comparable unfounded claims about the Brigitte Macron's identity.

Their complaint states that Owens brushed aside substantial counter-evidence disproving her claim in favour of give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has frequently reiterated these claims on her show and social media channels, and in March 2024 stated that she would bet her whole career on her conviction that Mrs. Macron was born a man.

Brigitte Macron initially encountered her current spouse when she taught at his lycée.

The pair married in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was 54.