Ten individuals convicted of cyber-bullying against Brigitte Macron
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A French judicial body has found guilty ten people for perpetrating the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the wife of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
The accused individuals faced charges of disseminating false claims regarding her gender and sexual orientation, in addition to making defamatory statements about the pair's 24-year age gap.
The court delivered suspended jail terms of a maximum of eight months to the perpetrators. The full ruling has still to be made public.
A longstanding false narrative claiming that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has been in circulation since her husband's initial election in 2017.
This Monday's court decision in France comes as 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 gender.
Their lawsuit states that Owens ignored any factual proof that refuted her assertions in favour of platforming known conspiracy theorists.
Owens has often echoed these allegations on her podcast and social networks, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would bet her whole career on her conviction that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her now-husband when she worked as an educator at his secondary school.
The couple married in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.
