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

A court in Paris has convicted ten people for carrying out the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the partner of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.

The those on trial faced allegations of disseminating false claims regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to posting defamatory statements about the couple's significant age difference.

The court issued suspended jail terms of as much as eight months to the convicted individuals. The detailed judgment has not yet been published.

A circulating conspiracy theory alleging that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has been in circulation since her husband's initial election in 2017.

This Monday's court decision in France comes as the Macrons engaging in a defamation lawsuit in the United States against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced similar conspiracy theories about the first lady's gender.

Their lawsuit alleges that Owens brushed aside all credible evidence disproving her claim in favour of give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has frequently reiterated these assertions on her show and social networks, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.

Brigitte Macron first met her future husband when she was a teacher at his secondary school.

The couple tied the knot in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was 54.