A group of ten convicted of cyber-bullying against Brigitte Macron

A Paris court has ruled against ten people for engaging in the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.

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

The court issued suspended jail terms of a maximum of eight months to the convicted individuals. The full ruling has not yet been published.

A longstanding unfounded claim suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has been in circulation since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.

This latest legal outcome in France comes as the Macrons pursuing a libel case in the United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared comparable unfounded claims about the French president's wife's gender.

Their legal filing alleges that Owens brushed aside substantial counter-evidence contradicting her allegations choosing instead to amplify the voices of notorious conspiracy peddlers.

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

Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her current spouse when she taught at his secondary school.

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