Ten convicted of digital abuse targeting Brigitte Macron
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A French judicial body has found guilty ten people for carrying out the digital intimidation of Brigitte Macron, the partner of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced accusations of circulating false claims regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to posting hurtful comments about the pair's 24-year age gap.
The court handed down suspended prison sentences of a maximum of eight months to the perpetrators. The complete verdict has not yet been published.
A circulating unfounded claim suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has spread widely since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.
This recent ruling 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 repeatedly shared comparable unfounded claims about the Brigitte Macron's gender.
Their legal filing states that Owens brushed aside all credible evidence disproving her claim in favour of platforming known conspiracy theorists.
Owens has frequently reiterated these assertions on her podcast and social networks, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would bet her whole career on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.
Brigitte Macron first met her future husband when she taught at his lycée.
The couple entered into matrimony in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was 54.
