A group of ten convicted of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron

A court in Paris has ruled against ten people for engaging in the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the partner of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.

The those on trial faced accusations of spreading false claims regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to making hurtful comments about the couple's significant age difference.

The court handed down conditional custodial sentences of a maximum of eight months to the defendants. The full ruling has yet to be released.

A circulating unfounded claim suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has existed since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.

This latest legal outcome in France coincides with the Macrons initiating a defamation lawsuit in the US against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared analogous false narratives about the French president's wife's gender.

Their complaint states that Owens disregarded all credible evidence contradicting her allegations opting to platforming known conspiracy theorists.

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

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

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