Ten individuals found guilty of cyber-bullying against Brigitte Macron

A French judicial body has ruled against ten people for perpetrating the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the partner of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.

The defendants faced accusations of circulating untruths regarding her sex and sexual orientation, in addition to publishing defamatory statements about the pair's 24-year age gap.

The court handed down suspended jail terms of a maximum of eight months to the convicted individuals. The complete verdict has yet to be released.

A persistent false narrative suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has been in circulation since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.

This Monday's court decision in France comes as the Macrons pursuing a legal action for defamation in the US against political commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced analogous false narratives about the French president's wife's biological sex.

Their legal filing contends that Owens disregarded all credible evidence that refuted her assertions in favour of platforming known conspiracy theorists.

Owens has frequently reiterated these allegations on her podcast and social networks, and in March 2024 declared that she would bet her whole career on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.

Brigitte Macron first met her now-husband when she was a teacher at his lycée.

The couple entered into matrimony in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was 54.