A group of ten found guilty of digital abuse targeting Brigitte Macron

A Paris court has convicted ten people for carrying out the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President, Emmanuel Macron.

The accused individuals faced allegations of spreading untruths regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to making malicious remarks about the couple's age disparity of 24 years.

The court issued suspended jail terms of up to eight months to the perpetrators. The full ruling has yet to be released.

A longstanding conspiracy theory alleging that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has spread widely since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.

This Monday's court decision in France comes as the Macrons pursuing a legal action for defamation in the United States against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has also voiced analogous false narratives about the first lady's gender.

Their legal filing states that Owens brushed aside any factual proof disproving her claim in favour of give a platform to established defamers.

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

Brigitte Macron initially encountered her now-husband when she worked as an educator at his high school.

The couple entered into matrimony in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was 54.