A Paris court has found ten people guilty of cyberbullying Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron. The defendants were accused of spreading false claims about her gender and sexuality, along with making malicious remarks about the couple’s 24-year age difference.
Most defendants received suspended prison sentences of up to eight months, while one was immediately jailed for failing to appear in court. Some also had their social media accounts suspended.
The judge stated that the eight men and two women acted with clear intent to harm Brigitte Macron, posting degrading and insulting comments online.
Among the defendants were Natacha Rey, a self-styled independent journalist, and internet fortune-teller Amandine Roy. Both were previously found guilty of slander in 2024 for claiming that France’s first lady never existed and alleging that her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, had changed gender and assumed her identity. However, they were later cleared on appeal, with the court ruling that suggesting someone had changed gender was not necessarily an attack on their honor. The Macrons are now appealing that decision to the highest court.
Brigitte Macron’s lawyer, Jean Ennochi, emphasized the importance of prevention courses and suspending some of the offenders’ accounts following the verdict.
During the trial, Tiphaine Auzière, Brigitte Macron’s daughter from a previous marriage, described how the cyberbullying had negatively impacted her mother’s health and daily life. She noted Brigitte Macron had become cautious about her appearance, knowing her image was exploited by conspiracy theorists, and highlighted the emotional toll on her grandchildren, who faced bullying at school.
Monday’s ruling comes ahead of a larger defamation lawsuit filed by the Macrons in the United States against right-wing influencer Candace Owens. Owens has repeatedly promoted conspiracy theories about Brigitte Macron’s gender, even stating in March 2024 that she would stake her professional reputation on the claim that Mrs. Macron “is in fact a man.”
Initially advised to ignore the online attacks to avoid amplifying them, the Macrons changed course last year, deciding the scale of the abuse was too great to overlook and choosing to confront the conspiracy theorists legally.
The conspiracy theory about Brigitte Macron’s gender has circulated since Emmanuel Macron’s election in 2017. The couple met when Brigitte was Emmanuel’s secondary school teacher. They married in 2007 when he was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.
Source: BBC
