Ten individuals found guilty of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron

A court in Paris has ruled against ten people for engaging in the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.

The those on trial faced allegations of disseminating false claims regarding her gender identity and sexual orientation, in addition to making hurtful comments about the pair's significant age difference.

The court handed down conditional custodial sentences of a maximum of eight months to the convicted individuals. The complete verdict has not yet been published.

A persistent conspiracy theory claiming that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has spread widely since her husband's initial election in 2017.

This latest legal outcome in France coincides with the Macrons initiating a defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has also voiced comparable unfounded claims about the French president's wife's gender.

Their legal filing contends that Owens brushed aside any factual proof disproving her claim opting to amplify the voices of notorious conspiracy peddlers.

Owens has often echoed these assertions on her digital program and social media channels, and in March 2024 stated that she would bet her whole career on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.

Brigitte Macron first met her current spouse when she worked as an educator at his lycée.

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