Ten found guilty of gender cyberbullying France First Lady Brigitte Macron

President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte, has faced intense harassment on social media with malicious claims she was born a man.Published On 5 Jan 2026A Paris court has found 10 people guilty of being involved in the cyber-harassment of President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte.On Monday, the defendants, including eight men and two women aged between 41 and 65, were found guilty of making malicious comments about Brigitte Macron’s gender and sexuality and equating her age difference with her husband to “paedophilia”.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3UK, France carry out joint strike on ISIL target near Syria’s Palmyralist 2 of 3Internet disruption, several arrests made as Iran protests continuelist 3 of 3After Australia’s ban, Indonesia mulls minimum age for social mediaend of listMacron, 48, and the first lady, 72, who met while she was a drama teacher at his school, have been the subject of intense interest since he became president in 2017.For Brigitte Macron, allegations swirled on social media that she was born under the name of Jean-Michel Trogneux, the name of her brother.On Monday, eight people were handed suspended sentences of four to eight months in prison. The ninth man was sentenced to six months in jail after he was absent from the hearing, and the final person was ordered to follow a course against hate speech online.Of those on trial, in advance of the sentencing, prosecutors sought the heaviest sentence against Aurelien Poirson-Atlan, 41, also known on social media as Zoe Sagan.Another of the most prominent defendants, gallery owner Bertrand Scholler, 56, said the trial was targeting his “freedom to think” faced with the “media deep state”.French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, during an event [File: Christian Hartmann/Reuters]While the Macrons largely ignored the falsehoods, they recently launched court cases challenging the comments.Her daughter, Tiphaine Auziere, testified about what she described as the “deterioration” of her mother’s life since the online harassment intensified. “She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Auziere told the court. She said the impact extended to the entire family, including Macron’s grandchildren.