Paris court convicts 10 for cyber-harassment of Brigitte Macron over false claims.
A group of 10 people who’d claimed online that Brigitte Macron was born a man have been convicted of cyber-harassment by a Paris court.
Ten people have been found guilty of cyber-bullying Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, by a Paris court.
The defendants were accused of spreading false claims about her gender and sexuality, as well as making „malicious remarks“ about the 24-year age gap between the couple.
Most of the defendants were handed suspended prison sentences of up to eight months, but one was jailed immediately for failing to attend court. Some had their social media accounts suspended.
The judge said the eight men and two women had acted with a clear desire to do harm to Brigitte Macron, making remarks online that were degrading and insulting.
Two of the ten people involved had already been convicted of slander last year, but the conviction was later overturned.
Among those convicted was Delphine Jegousse, 51, who identifies herself as an internet fortune teller under the name Amandine Roy. Prosecutors identified her as instrumental in amplifying the conspiracy theory after she produced a four-hour YouTube video in 2021 about Brigitte Macron’s alleged gender switch. Jegousse claimed to have uncovered a “state secret” that Macron was originally born Jean-Michel Trogneux, the name of her older brother.
The Macrons lodged a criminal complaint against Jegousse and another French participant in the video, Natacha Rey. The two were found guilty of slander in September 2024, but the verdict was overturned when an appeals court ruled they had spread the theories in “good faith.”
That case is still being appealed by the Macrons.
The argument used by the appeals court in clearing them was that saying someone had changed gender was not necessarily an „attack on their honour“.
The Macrons are now taking that case to the high court of appeal.
All of this is being seen as a step toward the more serious case the Macrons have filed in the US against Candace Owens. Owens has been sued for defamation, with the Macrons claiming she made false claims about Brigitte even though she knew, or had reason to know, those claims weren’t true.
