A group of ten convicted of cyber-bullying directed at Brigitte Macron

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

The defendants faced allegations of spreading fabrications regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to making defamatory statements about the husband and wife's 24-year age gap.

The court delivered conditional custodial sentences of up to eight months to the convicted individuals. The full ruling has still to be made public.

A circulating conspiracy theory suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has existed since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.

This latest legal outcome in France comes as the Macrons engaging in a legal action for defamation in the US against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has also voiced similar conspiracy theories about the French president's wife's biological sex.

Their legal filing contends that Owens brushed aside any factual proof disproving her claim choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.

Owens has often echoed these allegations on her show and online platforms, and in March 2024 declared that she would risk all her credibility on her conviction that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.

Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her future husband when she was a teacher at his secondary school.

The two married in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.