A Paris court has found ten people guilty of cyber-bullying Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, over a sustained campaign of online harassment that spread false claims about her gender and sexuality.
The ruling, delivered on Monday, concluded that the eight men and two women acted with a “clear desire to do harm” by posting degrading and insulting remarks on social media platforms.
Several defendants received suspended prison sentences of up to eight months, while one individual was immediately jailed after failing to attend the court hearing. In addition, some defendants had their social media accounts suspended as part of the penalties.
The case centred on conspiracy theories that have circulated online for years, falsely alleging that Brigitte Macron is transgender and that she never existed. Prosecutors said the claims were amplified through repeated posts, videos and comments that went beyond opinion and crossed into harassment and abuse.
Among those involved were self-described independent journalist Natacha Rey and internet fortune-teller Amandine Roy. In 2024, they were convicted of slander for claiming that Brigitte Macron was in fact her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, who they alleged had changed gender and taken her identity.
That conviction was later overturned on appeal, with judges ruling that stating someone had changed gender did not necessarily constitute an attack on honour under French law.
The presidential couple has since taken that case to France’s highest court of appeal, arguing that the reasoning failed to account for the malicious and harmful intent behind the claims.
Speaking after Monday’s verdict, Brigitte Macron’s lawyer Jean Ennochi said the decision sent an important signal. “The most important things are the prevention courses and the suspension of some of the accounts,” he said, according to AFP, stressing the need to deter similar behaviour online.
During the trial, Brigitte Macron’s daughter from a previous marriage, Tiphaine Auzière, described the toll the harassment had taken on her mother’s health and daily life. She told the court that the first lady had become cautious about her clothing, posture and public image, knowing that online users would scrutinise and manipulate her appearance to fuel conspiracy theories.
While Brigitte Macron had learned to live with the abuse, Auzière said, its effects extended to her grandchildren, who were taunted at school.
The ruling comes ahead of a much larger legal battle in the United States, where the Macrons have filed a defamation lawsuit against right-wing influencer Candace Owens. They allege that Owens repeatedly promoted the same conspiracy theories, disregarding credible evidence and amplifying known conspiracy theorists to her large online audience.
Initially advised to ignore the rumours to avoid amplifying them, the Macrons changed course last year, arguing that the scale and persistence of the attacks had become impossible to ignore.