French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife are suing right-wing American podcaster Candace Owens for claiming Brigitte Macron was born male. The French couple says Owens, a political commentator known for sharing controversial opinions, is trying to draw attention to herself through sensational, false claims.
“Ms Owens’ campaign of defamation was plainly designed to harass and cause pain to us and our families and to garner attention and notoriety,” the Macrons said in a statement. “We gave her every opportunity to back away from these claims, but she refused. It is our earnest hope that this lawsuit will set the record straight and end this campaign of defamation once and for all.”
Owens has not publicly responded to the lawsuit. In January, she said that “in order to prove defamation, you have to prove that somebody acted in reckless disregard for the truth, that they knew the truth and they made a decision not to publicize it, instead they wanted to just publicize lies.”
Lawsuit cites March 2024 post
The Macrons filed the lawsuit Wednesday, July 23, in Delaware. It says Owens posted on X in March 2024 that she would risk her professional reputation by saying Brigitte Macron is a man. According to court documents, Owens repeatedly used the comments to boost her independent media platform, raise her public profile and generate wealth.
The lawsuit outlines 22 counts against Owens, including defamation, false light and defamation by implication.
The 219-page lawsuit says Owens ignored credible sources that debunked her allegation, instead giving a platform to conspiracy theorists and individuals previously found to have published defamatory content.
Claims amplified on podcast, social media
Owens refused to engage with the Macrons to correct the record, according to the lawsuit, instead mocking them and turning the controversy into additional material for her audience.
When the Macrons sent a retraction demand, the lawsuit says, Owens retaliated by launching an eight-part podcast series titled “Becoming Brigitte,” in which she claimed Brigitte Macron was actually Jean-Michel Trogneux.
The lawsuit says the series included a number of claims that were verifiably false. In addition to claiming Brigitte Macron was born male, Owens alleged she stole another person’s identity and transitioned into her current identity.
Owens also suggested the Macrons are blood relatives involved in an incestuous relationship, that Emmanuel Macron became France’s leader through a CIA mind-control program and that the couple engaged in fraud and abuse of power to conceal these alleged secrets.
Owens knew the accusations were false at the time she published them, the lawsuit says.
Owens allegedly used the false claims to promote her podcast, “Candace,” after the right-wing publication The Daily Wire cut ties with her over antisemitic statements in 2024. She now has 6.9 million followers on X and 4.47 million subscribers on YouTube, according to the lawsuit.
A pattern of provocation, the complaint says
The complaint depicts a pattern of inflammatory behavior by Owens, saying she has built her public identity around provocation rather than fact-based reporting. She describes herself as an “independent investigative journalist,” the lawsuit says, but has promoted conspiracy theories on topics ranging from vaccines to the Holocaust.
Court records say Owens has promoted antisemitic tropes, made false claims about blood libel and minimized the crimes of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, which she reportedly called “propaganda.”
