A Paris court has found ten people guilty of cyberbullying France’s First Lady, Brigitte Macron, after they spread false and malicious rumours about her gender and sexuality online.
The defendants — eight men and two women aged between 41 and 65 — were convicted on Monday for posting comments that the court called “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious”. The posts included baseless claims that Mrs Macron had been born a man and targeted the 24-year age gap between her and French President Emmanuel Macron.
One defendant received a six-month prison sentence, while eight others were handed suspended sentences ranging from two to eight months. All ten were ordered to complete cyberbullying awareness training, and several will temporarily lose access to the social media platforms where they posted the abuse.
Mrs Macron, who did not attend the October trial, said on French TV channel TF1 that she took legal action to “set an example” in tackling online harassment. “I want to help adolescents to fight against harassment, and if I do not set an example, it will be difficult,” she said.
Her lawyer, Jean Ennochi, told reporters after the verdict that the outcome was an important step forward. “What is important is that there are immediate cyberbullying awareness trainings, and for some of the defendants, a ban on using their social media accounts,” he said.
False rumours and real fallout
The online smear campaign first surfaced in 2021, when conspiracy theories began circulating that Mrs Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux — the name of her brother. One of the main defendants, Delphine Jegousse (who goes by Amandine Roy online), helped amplify the rumour by releasing a four-hour YouTube video that year. She was sentenced to six months in prison.
Another defendant, Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, known online as Zoé Sagan, received an eight-month sentence. His social media account was already suspended in 2024 after being linked to several judicial investigations.
The effects of the sustained harassment extended beyond Mrs Macron herself. Her daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, testified during the trial about the toll it had taken on their family. “She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Auzière told the court, describing the “deterioration” of her mother’s life since the abuse escalated.
The court said the sentences reflected the seriousness of the comments and the “cumulative harmful effects” of repeated online attacks.
While the Macrons had largely avoided publicly addressing the rumours, they have now taken multiple legal steps to counter the misinformation. The couple recently filed a defamation suit in the United States against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who repeated similar false claims.
For Brigitte Macron, the verdict represents both accountability and a message about the dangers of digital harassment. “A birth certificate is not nothing,” she said on TF1.
“It is a father or a mother who goes to declare their child, who says who he is or who she is.”
Lead image: AP News
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