Ten individuals sentenced of digital abuse against Brigitte Macron
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A French judicial body has convicted ten people for carrying out the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President, Emmanuel Macron.
The accused individuals faced allegations of disseminating fabrications regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to publishing defamatory statements about the couple's age disparity of 24 years.
The court handed down suspended prison sentences of up to eight months to the defendants. The full ruling has still to be made public.
A longstanding false narrative suggesting 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 is concurrent with the Macrons initiating a legal action for defamation in the United States against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted similar conspiracy theories about the first lady's identity.
Their complaint contends that Owens disregarded any factual proof contradicting her allegations choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.
Owens has often echoed these claims on her podcast and social networks, and in March 2024 stated that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her insistence that Mrs. Macron was born a man.
Brigitte Macron first met her current spouse when she taught at his lycée.
The two married in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was 54.
