10 Found Guilty of Cyberbullying Brigitte Macron Over Claims She Was Born Male

The French president and his wife are taking separate legal action against American conservative influencer Candace Owens for amplifying the rumors.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, disembark from their plane upon their arrival at the Capital International Airport in Beijing on Dec. 3, 2025. Ludovic Marin-Pool/Getty Images

A Paris court on Jan. 5 found 10 people guilty of cyberbullying Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, by spreading online rumors that she was born male.

One defendant was sentenced to six months in prison, and eight were given suspended sentences of between four and eight months. All 10 were ordered to attend awareness training on cyberbullying, which is a separate offense from other forms of harassment under French law.

The defendants, eight men and two women aged between 41 and 65, were each accused of having posted numerous comments claiming that Brigitte Macron was born Jean-Michel Trogneux—the name of her brother—and likening the 24-year age gap between the couple and how they met to pedophilia.

The Macrons are involved in a separate civil action against American conservative influencer Candace Owens, who made a series examining the long-standing claims titled “Becoming Brigitte.”

Accusations of Pedophilia

The court pointed to “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious” comments about 72-year-old Brigitte Macron’s alleged transgender identity and accusations of pedophile criminality targeted at the first lady, who met her 48-year-old husband when he was a 15-year-old schoolboy and she was his 39-year-old teacher.

Some of the posts made by the defendants were viewed tens of thousands of times.

“Repeated publications have had cumulative harmful effects,” the court said.

Neither of the Macrons attended the two-day criminal trial in October.

Defendant Delphine Jegousse, known as Amandine Roy, arrives at the courtroom as 10 people went on trial over cyberbullying Brigitte Macron after spreading claims that President Emmanuel Macron’s wife was a man, in Paris on Oct. 27, 2025. AP Photo/Michel Euler

Speaking on TF1 French national television on Jan. 4, Brigitte Macron said she started legal proceedings to “set an example” in the fight against online harassment because she wanted to “help teenagers.”

Her lawyer, Jean Ennochi, said on Jan. 5, “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.”

‘Horrible Things’

Brigitte Macron’s daughter from her first marriage, Tiphaine Auzière, gave evidence to the court on what she termed the “deterioration” of her mother’s life since the online harassment intensified.

“She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Auzière told the court, saying the consequences have affected the extended family, including Brigitte Macron’s grandchildren.

Delphine Jegousse, 51, who is also known as Amandine Roy and describes herself as a medium and an author, is considered to have played a significant role in spreading the rumor after she released a four-hour video on her YouTube channel in 2021.

She was given a six-month prison sentence. Under French law, such a sentence may be served at home, possibly while wearing an ankle monitor or following other requirements determined by a judge.

Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, known by the pseudonym Zoé Sagan on social media, was given an eight-month prison sentence, along with another defendant, a gallery owner.

Poirson-Atlan’s X account was suspended in 2024 after he was named in several judicial investigations. A number of the other defendants will have their online access suspended for six months on the social media platforms where they made their posts.

The only defendant not handed a prison sentence was a teacher, who apologized during the trial. He is required to attend the cyberbullying awareness training.

The court said the sentences handed down were proportional to the seriousness of the comments made.

French judicial authorities have not disclosed the names of the defendants, but some chose to make their identities public by speaking out.

(Left) French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron attend a drinks reception for Queen Elizabeth II and G7 leaders at The Eden Project during the G7 Summit in St Austell, Cornwall, England, on June 11, 2021. (Right) US conservative author Candace Owens speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2022 in Orlando on Feb. 25, 2022. Jack Hill - WPA Pool/Getty Images; Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

During the trial, several of the defendants told the court their comments were intended as satire or humor and said they did not understand why they were being prosecuted.

The Macrons have separately filed a defamation lawsuit in the state of Delaware against former Daily Wire commentator and podcaster Owens, whose investigative series into the transgender rumors hit the internet in February 2025.

The eight videos in the series have garnered millions of views around the world on platforms including YouTube and TikTok.

Former Teacher

The Macrons married in 2007, years after they met at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher and a married mother of three known as Brigitte Auzière, according to biographical accounts.

Defendant Aurelien Poirson-Atlan, center, arrives at the courtroom as 10 people were put on trial over cyberbullying of Brigitte Macron after spreading claims that President Emmanuel Macron’s wife was a man, in Paris on Oct. 27, 2025. Michel Euler/AP Photo

Lawyer Tom Clare, who is representing the couple in their defamation suit against Owens, told the BBC in an interview in September 2025 that Brigitte Macron was prepared to present scientific evidence to a court to prove she is a biological woman. He declined to provide further details on the nature of such evidence.

Owens, who has more than 7.5 million followers on X, said previously that she was willing to stake her entire professional reputation on the theory that Brigitte Macron was born male.

She said in a March 2024 post, “Any journalist or publication that is trying to dismiss this plausibility is immediately identifiable as establishment. I have never seen anything like this in my life. The implications here are terrifying.”

Speaking to TF1 on Jan. 4, Brigitte Macron referred to another ongoing legal action she is involved in against two women whom she accuses of tampering with her birth certificate. These two women are Jegousse, who was convicted in the harassment case, and Natacha Rey, a blogger who was interviewed by Jegousse in the four-hour video in 2021.

In September 2024, Brigitte Macron and Jean-Michel Trogneux won a defamation suit against Jegousse and Rey, who were sentenced by a Paris court to fines and damages for spreading the claims online.

A Paris appeals court overturned the ruling in July because the judge accepted that the claims were made in “good faith.” The court did not rule on the veracity of the claims about Brigitte Macron’s biological sex.

Trogneux is appealing that ruling to a higher French court, his attorney told AFP on July 13, 2025.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.