A Paris court found 10 people guilty of cyberbullying France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, by spreading false online claims about her gender and sexuality, prosecutors said Monday. The court said the allegations included claims that she was born a male, alongside other comments likening an age gap between Brigitte Macron and President Emmanuel Macron to pedophilia.
The court described the comments as “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious.” It also said “Repeated publications have had cumulative harmful effects,” pointing to the sustained nature of the postings.
Sentencing varied among the 10 defendants. One defendant was sentenced to six months in prison. Eight others received suspended sentences ranging from four to eight months. In addition to those penalties, the court ordered all 10 to attend cyberbullying awareness training.
The court said some of the posts had been viewed tens of thousands of times. It also stressed that the sentences were proportional to what the court characterized as the seriousness of the comments.
Brigitte Macron did not attend the two-day trial held in October. Speaking on TF1 national television on Sunday, she said she launched legal proceedings to “set an example” in the fight against harassment.
Her lawyer, Jean Ennochi, said Monday that “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.” Tiphaine Auzière, Brigitte Macron’s daughter, testified that her mother’s life had suffered what she described as the “deterioration” of her day-to-day existence since online harassment intensified. Auzière told the court that her mother “cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” and that the impact had extended to the entire family, including Macron’s grandchildren.
Under French law, the six-month prison sentence may be served at home, possibly while wearing an ankle monitor or under other requirements set by a judge, according to the report. French judicial authorities did not disclose the names of the defendants, but some made their names public after the trial by speaking out.
The report identified Delphine Jegousse, known online as Amandine Roy, as receiving a six-month prison sentence. The court considered her to have played a major role in spreading the rumor after she released a four-hour video on her YouTube channel in 2021. The report also said Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, known as Zoé Sagan on social media, was sentenced to eight months in prison; his X account had been suspended in 2024 after his name was cited in several judicial investigations, and he received the sentence along with another defendant, a gallery owner.
The only defendant not given a prison sentence was a teacher who apologized during the trial, the report said. Several defendants also saw their online access suspended for six months on the social media platforms where they made their posts. All 10 were additionally ordered to jointly pay 10,000 euros ($11,675) in compensation to Brigitte Macron for moral damage.
The case follows years of conspiracy theories that falsely alleged Brigitte Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, a name the report said actually belongs to her brother. It comes after the Macrons filed a defamation suit in the United States against conservative influencer Candace Owens, the report said.
During the trial, several defendants told the court their comments were intended as humor or satire and said they did not understand why they were being prosecuted.