Ten found guilty of online harassment directed at Brigitte Macron

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

The defendants faced accusations of spreading untruths regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to making defamatory statements about the husband and wife's 24-year age gap.

The court handed down conditional custodial sentences of up to eight months to the defendants. The full ruling has not yet been published.

A longstanding unfounded claim claiming that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has spread widely since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.

This Monday's court decision in France coincides with the Macrons initiating a defamation lawsuit in the United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced similar conspiracy theories about the first lady's identity.

Their complaint contends that Owens brushed aside substantial counter-evidence disproving her claim opting to platforming known conspiracy theorists.

Owens has regularly repeated these claims on her podcast and online platforms, and in March 2024 declared that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her conviction that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.

Brigitte Macron first met her current spouse when she was a teacher at his high school.

The couple entered into matrimony in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.