Ten people are currently on trial in a French court over the sexist online harassment of France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, after allegedly making malicious claims about her gender assignment.

The defendants, who include eight men and two women between the ages of 41 and 60, had claimed that Mrs. Macron was born male but was later reassigned female.

The unsupported claims by the defendants had long targeted the presidential couple and been critical of their 24-year age gap.

According to a court in Paris, the defendants were accused of spreading “numerous malicious comments” online about the first lady’s gender and “sexuality,” and of referring to the age gap with her husband, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, as “pedophilia.”

The defendants risk a two-year prison sentence if found guilty of defamation against the 72-year-old former teacher.

One of the defendants, 41-year-old publicist Aurelien Poirson-Atlan, known as Zoe Sagan on social media, has previously been linked with social conspiracy theory circles.

Another defendant, Delphine J., a self-proclaimed medium also known as Amandine Roy, had also been the subject of a libel complaint filed by the first lady back in 2022.

Ms J., who posted a four-hour interview in 2021 with a journalist, Natasha Rey, on her YouTube channel, alleged that Mrs Macron, whose maiden name is Trogneaux, had once been a man named Jean Michel Trogneaux,  the name of her brother, who died in 2018.

Both Ms J. and Ms Rey were ordered to pay Mrs Macron and her brother for damages after she filed a lawsuit against them for cyber harassment in August 2024. The order was later overturned by the court after the defendants appealed.

Mrs Macron has since taken the matter to the country’s highest appeals court, the Court of Cassation.

In July 2025, the First Lady and her husband, Mr. Macron, also filed a lawsuit in the U.S. against conservative politician Candace Owens after her production of a series titled “Becoming Brigitte”, where Ms Owens claimed Mrs Macron was born male.

Mrs Macron’s case of sexist online harassment is one of many others involving high-profile women in the political space, such as former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, and New Zealand’s ex-premier Jacinda Ardern, who have all been accused of gender reassignment.