A group of ten convicted of online harassment directed at Brigitte Macron

A French judicial body has convicted ten people for carrying out the digital intimidation of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.

The accused individuals faced accusations of circulating untruths regarding her sex and sexual orientation, in addition to making hurtful comments about the couple's significant age difference.

The court delivered conditional custodial sentences of a maximum of eight months to the convicted individuals. The detailed judgment has not yet been published.

A circulating conspiracy theory claiming that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has existed since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.

This Monday's court decision in France is concurrent with the Macrons engaging in a legal action for defamation in the US against political commentator Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted analogous false narratives about the French president's wife's gender.

Their legal filing alleges that Owens brushed aside all credible evidence contradicting her allegations choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has regularly repeated these allegations on her show and social networks, and in March 2024 declared that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her belief that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.

Brigitte Macron first met her now-husband when she worked as an educator at his lycée.

The two married in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was 54.