Ten sentenced of cyber-bullying directed at Brigitte Macron
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A French judicial body has ruled against ten people for perpetrating the digital intimidation of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced allegations of circulating fabrications regarding her gender and sexual orientation, in addition to making defamatory statements about the husband and wife's significant age difference.
The court handed down conditional custodial sentences of up to eight months to the defendants. The full ruling has not yet been published.
A persistent false narrative claiming that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has existed since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.
This recent ruling in France coincides with the Macrons engaging in a libel case in the US against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared similar conspiracy theories about the French president's wife's biological sex.
Their complaint states that Owens ignored substantial counter-evidence disproving her claim choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.
Owens has frequently reiterated these claims on her show and social media channels, and in March 2024 stated that she would risk all her credibility on her belief that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.
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 then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.
