A group of ten found guilty of online harassment directed at Brigitte Macron

A Paris court has convicted ten people for engaging in the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.

The defendants faced accusations of disseminating false claims regarding her sex and sexual orientation, in addition to posting malicious remarks about the husband and wife's significant age difference.

The court delivered suspended jail terms of as much as eight months to the convicted individuals. The detailed judgment has yet to be released.

A longstanding false narrative suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has existed since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.

This recent ruling in France is concurrent with the Macrons pursuing a defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared analogous false narratives about the Brigitte Macron's gender.

Their complaint states that Owens ignored all credible evidence disproving her claim choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has frequently reiterated these claims on her show and social networks, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her belief that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.

Brigitte Macron initially encountered her future husband when she taught at his secondary school.

The two entered into matrimony in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.