Overview
- Eight men and two women were found guilty of posting or reposting false claims about Brigitte Macron’s gender and insinuations tied to the couple’s 24-year age gap.
- Penalties included four- to eight-month suspended prison terms for eight defendants, a six-month jail term for an absent man, fines, social-media account suspensions and mandatory courses on online hate.
- The court deemed the statements “malicious, degrading and insulting,” rejecting defenses that the posts were satire or humor.
- Defendants ranged from an elected official and a teacher to a gallery owner and a publicist, with key spreaders linked to a 2021 four-hour YouTube video and an X account later suspended.
- The verdict follows years of far-right amplification of the rumor, as the Macrons pursue a separate U.S. defamation suit against influencer Candace Owens and Brigitte Macron presses the case as a deterrent to harassment.