Ten sentenced of digital abuse directed at Brigitte Macron
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A court in Paris has convicted ten people for engaging in the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The those on trial faced accusations of circulating false claims regarding her gender identity and sexual orientation, in addition to publishing hurtful comments about the couple's 24-year age gap.
The court delivered suspended jail terms of up to eight months to the convicted individuals. The full ruling has not yet been published.
A longstanding conspiracy theory alleging that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has been in circulation since her husband's initial election in 2017.
This recent ruling in France coincides with the Macrons pursuing a legal action for defamation in the United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced similar conspiracy theories about the first lady's identity.
Their lawsuit states that Owens disregarded substantial counter-evidence disproving her claim choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.
Owens has regularly repeated these assertions on her show and social networks, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her conviction that Mrs. Macron was born a man.
Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her future husband when she taught at his secondary school.
The couple married in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was 54.
