A group of ten found guilty of digital abuse against Brigitte Macron

A court in Paris has ruled against ten people for engaging in the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.

The accused individuals faced charges of disseminating untruths regarding her gender identity and sexual orientation, in addition to posting malicious remarks about the pair's age disparity of 24 years.

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

A persistent false narrative claiming that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has been in circulation since her husband's initial election in 2017.

This Monday's court decision in France is concurrent with the Macrons initiating a defamation lawsuit in the US against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted analogous false narratives about the first lady's biological sex.

Their complaint states that Owens disregarded substantial counter-evidence contradicting her allegations choosing instead to amplify the voices of notorious conspiracy peddlers.

Owens has regularly repeated these allegations on her podcast and online platforms, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her insistence that Mrs. Macron was born a man.

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

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