A Paris court on Monday found ten people guilty of cyber bullying France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, in the latest legal action sparked by false claims that she is a transgender woman who was born a man.
The eight men and two women, aged 41 to 60, had been accused of making malicious comments about Brigitte Macron’s gender and sexuality, including equating her age difference with her husband to “paedophilia”.
The court said those claims were “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious”, and handed down penalties ranging from a cyberbullying awareness training to 8-month suspended prison sentences.
Ms Macron did not attend the two-day trial in October. Speaking on TF1 national television on Sunday, she said she launched legal proceedings to “set an example” in the fight against harassment.
Defendant Delphine Jegousse, 51, a self-described medium known as Amandine Roy, is considered to have played a major role in spreading the rumour after she released a four-hour video on her YouTube channel in 2021.
She was also the subject of a defamation complaint launched by Ms Macron three years ago.
Other defendants include an elected official, a teacher and a computer scientist. Several told the court their comments were intended as humour or satire and said they did not understand why they were being prosecuted.
During the trial, defendant Jerome A, 49, was asked about posts he wrote or reposted last year about Ms Macron being a man or having a penis. He told the court that “it was just a joke”, adding that his posts were “satirical” in spirit.
Arrests were made in December 2024 and February 2025, and all 10 had denied wrongdoing.
The case follows years of conspiracy theories falsely alleging that Brigitte Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is actually the name of her brother.
The wild, unsubstantiated claims about Mrs Macron’s gender have also been gaining ground in the US, where far-right podcaster Candace Owens has repeatedly amplified the false claim online that Mrs Macron was born a man. The Macrons have also filed a defamation suit in the United States against Owens.
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