French Court Sentences 10 Over False Transgender Claims About Brigitte Macron

French Court Convicts Ten for Online Harassment of First Lady Brigitte Macron

Ten individuals were found guilty by a French court on Monday for cyberbullying France’s first lady Brigitte Macron through the spread of false claims alleging she is transgender, marking a significant legal victory against online misinformation.

The Paris court handed down the stiffest penalty to 51-year-old Delphine Jegousse, also known as Amandine Roy, sentencing her to six months in prison. Eight co-defendants received suspended sentences ranging from four to eight months. All convicted parties must attend mandatory cyberbullying awareness training and collectively pay €10,000 (approximately $11,675) in damages to Macron.

In its ruling, the court emphasized the harmful nature of the defendants’ behavior, describing their online comments as “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious.” The judgment specifically noted that “repeated publications have had cumulative harmful effects” on the first lady.

This case represents the latest chapter in a prolonged legal battle Macron has waged against conspiracy theorists who have targeted her with unfounded claims. The conspiracy theory first gained significant traction in 2021 when Jegousse and another propagator, Natacha Rey, produced a YouTube video falsely asserting that Brigitte Macron is actually her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, who they claimed had secretly undergone gender transition.

The timing of the initial viral spread was particularly notable, occurring just weeks before the 2022 French presidential election in which Emmanuel Macron sought re-election. The apparent political motivation behind the timing prompted the first lady to file a libel complaint.

Despite earlier legal victories against the originators of these claims, including a 2024 judgment that ordered Roy and Rey to pay Macron €8,000 (about $8,864) in damages, the false narrative continued to proliferate across social media platforms and international borders. That ruling was later overturned on appeal, making Monday’s conviction particularly significant in establishing legal consequences for digital harassment.

The conspiracy gained renewed momentum when American conservative commentator Candace Owens amplified the claims to her substantial audience. “After looking into this, I would stake my entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man,” Owens wrote at the time, adding, “Any journalist or publication that is trying to dismiss this plausibility is immediately identifiable as establishment.”

In 2023, Owens doubled down by producing an eight-part YouTube series titled “Becoming Brigitte,” which not only repeated the transgender conspiracy but expanded it to include bizarre claims that the Macrons are blood relatives and that President Macron was allegedly the product of a CIA human experimentation program—referencing the long-debunked MKUltra project.

The persistent harassment eventually led the Macrons to file a separate lawsuit against Owens in July, after reportedly sending several unheeded cease-and-desist letters. Their legal complaint characterized Owens’ actions as a “campaign of global humiliation” that was “invasive, dehumanizing, and deeply unjust.”

“Owens has dissected their appearance, their marriage, their friends, their family, and their personal history—twisting it all into a grotesque narrative designed to inflame and degrade,” the lawsuit stated. The Macrons have since submitted scientific evidence confirming that Brigitte is a cisgender woman.

This case highlights the growing legal response to online harassment of public figures, particularly women, and represents one of France’s most high-profile cyberbullying convictions. Legal experts note that such cases often test the balance between freedom of expression and protection from harmful misinformation, especially when targeting individuals based on gender identity.

For Brigitte Macron, this conviction offers some measure of vindication after years of being subjected to what French media have described as a coordinated campaign of digital harassment designed to undermine both her dignity and her husband’s presidency.