A group of ten found guilty of online harassment against Brigitte Macron
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A court in Paris has found guilty ten people for carrying out the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced accusations of circulating fabrications regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to publishing defamatory statements about the pair's significant age difference.
The court handed down suspended jail terms of as much as eight months to the defendants. The full ruling has yet to be released.
A longstanding unfounded claim alleging that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has spread widely since her husband's initial election in 2017.
This latest legal outcome in France is concurrent with the Macrons pursuing a legal action for defamation in the United States against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has also voiced similar conspiracy theories about the French president's wife's identity.
Their lawsuit alleges that Owens brushed aside all credible evidence contradicting her allegations choosing instead to amplify the voices of notorious conspiracy peddlers.
Owens has frequently reiterated these claims on her podcast and social networks, and in March 2024 stated that she would risk all her credibility on her insistence that Mrs. Macron was born a man.
Brigitte Macron first met her future husband when she taught at his secondary school.
The two tied the knot in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.
