Ten individuals convicted of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron
Image credit
A Paris court has found guilty ten people for perpetrating the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the partner of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced allegations of spreading fabrications regarding her gender and sexual orientation, in addition to making defamatory statements about the couple's 24-year age gap.
The court issued suspended jail terms of up to eight months to the defendants. The complete verdict has not yet been published.
A circulating unfounded claim alleging 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 legal action for defamation in the United States against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has also voiced analogous false narratives about the first lady's biological sex.
Their lawsuit contends that Owens brushed aside all credible evidence contradicting her allegations in favour of give a platform to established defamers.
Owens has often echoed these allegations on her digital program and social media channels, and in March 2024 declared that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her conviction that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.
Brigitte Macron first met her future husband when she taught at his high school.
The two entered into matrimony in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.
