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A French judicial body has ruled against ten people for perpetrating the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced allegations of spreading untruths regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to posting hurtful comments about the pair's 24-year age gap.
The court issued conditional custodial sentences of up to eight months to the defendants. The detailed judgment has not yet been published.
A persistent conspiracy theory claiming that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has existed since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.
This Monday's court decision in France comes as the Macrons engaging in a defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared similar conspiracy theories about the French president's wife's identity.
Their complaint contends that Owens brushed aside substantial counter-evidence that refuted her assertions opting to amplify the voices of notorious conspiracy peddlers.
Owens has frequently reiterated these claims on her digital program and social media channels, and in March 2024 declared that she would bet her whole career on her conviction that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.
Brigitte Macron first met her future husband when she worked as an educator at his secondary school.
The couple entered into matrimony in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.
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