A Paris court has convicted 10 individuals for cyberbullying Brigitte Macron, France’s first lady, by spreading false information online about her gender and sexuality, including claims that she was born male. The court handed down various sentences, with one defendant receiving six months in prison and the others receiving suspended sentences ranging from four to eight months. All 10 were also mandated to undergo cyberbullying awareness training.
The court highlighted the “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious” nature of the comments, which included false allegations that Brigitte Macron was transgender and a pedophile. The repeated dissemination of these falsehoods was deemed to have caused cumulative harm.
The defendants, comprising eight men and two women aged between 41 and 65, were accused of making numerous false statements online, such as asserting that President Emmanuel Macron’s wife was originally male and likening their significant age gap to pedophilia. Some of these posts garnered tens of thousands of views.
Brigitte Macron did not appear at the two-day trial in October. However, she expressed on national television her intention to pursue legal action as a means of combatting harassment. Her lawyer emphasized the importance of immediate cyberbullying awareness training and, for some defendants, restrictions on their social media use.
The impact of the online harassment was also detailed by her daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, who testified about the distress it caused her mother and the wider family, including Macron’s grandchildren. The court sentenced one defendant, a property asset manager, to six months in prison, which may be served at home under French law. Another defendant, Delphine Jegousse, received the same prison term for her significant role in propagating the rumor through a lengthy video released on her YouTube channel in 2021.
Aurelien Poirson-Atlan, known as Zoe Sagan on social media, and a gallery owner were each given eight-month prison sentences. The defendants argued during the trial that their posts were meant as humor or satire, claiming they did not anticipate legal repercussions.
The case is part of a larger trend of baseless conspiracy theories alleging that Brigitte Macron was born under a different name, which has led to legal action against individuals like Candace Owens. The Macrons, who married in 2007, met when Emmanuel Macron was a student and Brigitte was his teacher. Brigitte Macron, now 72 and 24 years older than her husband, was previously known as Brigitte Auzière, a mother of three. Emmanuel Macron, 48, has been serving as France’s president since 2017.