Ten individuals sentenced of digital abuse against Brigitte Macron

A French judicial body has found guilty ten people for engaging in the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of French President, Emmanuel Macron.

The accused individuals faced accusations of disseminating false claims regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to posting defamatory statements about the pair's age disparity of 24 years.

The court issued conditional custodial sentences of a maximum of eight months to the convicted individuals. The detailed judgment has yet to be released.

A longstanding unfounded claim alleging that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has been in circulation since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.

This latest legal outcome in France comes as the Macrons pursuing a legal action for defamation in the United States of America against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has also voiced comparable unfounded claims about the first lady's gender.

Their legal filing contends that Owens brushed aside any factual proof contradicting her allegations choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has frequently reiterated these assertions on her podcast and online platforms, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would risk all her credibility on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.

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

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