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The Macrons are suing Candace Owens over her claim that Brigitte Macron is a man: How we got here
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, have filed a lawsuit against Candace Owens over the far-right podcaster’s repeated claims that France’s first lady was born a man.
In a 219-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in Delaware Superior Court, the Macrons pointed to a March 2024 post on X in which Owens said that she would stake her “entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man.”
“Since then Owens has used this false statement to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety, and make money,” the lawsuit states. “Owens disregarded all credible evidence disproving her claim in favor of platforming known conspiracy theorists and proven defamers.”
According to the lawsuit, Owens ignored multiple retraction requests.
“Rather than engage with the President and First Lady’s attempts to set the record straight,” the suit states, Owens “mocked them and used them as additional fodder for her frenzied fan base.”
“We gave her every opportunity to back away from these claims, but she refused,” the Macrons said in a statement. “It is our earnest hope that this lawsuit will set the record straight and end this campaign of defamation once and for all.”
What else does the lawsuit say?
Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, in London on July 9. (Ludovic Marin/Pool via Reuters)
In an eight-part podcast series titled “Becoming Brigitte,” Owens “endorsed, repeated, and published a series of verifiably false and devastating lies” about the Macrons, according to the complaint.
Among them:
Brigitte Macron “was born a man, stole another person’s identity, and transitioned to become Brigitte.”
The French president and first lady “are blood relatives committing incest.”
Emmanuel Macron was “chosen to be the President of France as part of the CIA-operated MKUltra program or a similar mind-control program.”
And the Macrons are “committing forgery, fraud, and abuses of power to conceal these secrets.”
“These claims are demonstrably false, and Owens knew they were false when she published them. Yet, she published them anyway,” the lawsuit states. “And the reason is clear: it is not the pursuit of truth, but the pursuit of fame.”
The complaint alleges that Owens subjected the Macrons to a “campaign of global humiliation,” arguing that the podcaster has attempted to monetize her defamatory claims by selling merchandise such as a T-shirt showing Brigitte Macron on a fake Time magazine “Man of the Year” cover.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
What was Owens’s response?
Candace Owens at CPAC in 2023. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
On her podcast Wednesday, Owens was defiant, telling the audience she was being sued by “the first lady man of France” while doubling down on her claims.
“If you need any more evidence that Brigitte Macron is definitely a man, it is just what is happening right now.” Owens said. “The idea that you would file this lawsuit is all of the proof that you need.”
“Candace Owens is not shutting up,” her spokesperson said in a separate statement. “This is a foreign government attacking the First Amendment rights of an American independent journalist.”
Owens was formerly the communications director for the conservative activist organization Turning Point USA and gained notoriety as an outspoken commentator for the Daily Wire. Last year the website severed ties with Owens over a series of comments that were seen as antisemitic.
Her YouTube channel, which streams her podcast, has more than 4.4 million subscribers.
A similar case in France
The lawsuit against Owens comes as the Macrons are pursuing a similar case in France.
Last year, Brigitte Macron and her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, won a defamation suit against two women for spreading claims that she was born a male with his name and then took the name Brigitte when she transitioned to a woman. Last month a Paris appeals court overturned the ruling.
Brigitte Macron and her brother have appealed that decision to France’s highest court.
In the U.S. case, the Macrons are being represented by Clare Locke, a law firm that served as co-counsel for Dominion Voting Systems in its historic $787 million settlement with Fox News in 2023 over the cable network’s false claims about the 2020 election.
A scandalous beginning
Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte Macron arrive at 10 Downing Street in London. (Alberto Pezzali/AP)
Emmanuel Macron, 47, and Brigitte Macron, 72, have been married since 2007.
They met in 1993, when Emmanuel was in high school and Brigitte was his drama teacher and a married mother of three. He was 15 years old — the age of consent in France — and she was 39. One of her daughters was his classmate.
For his senior year, Emmanuel left to attend high school in Paris, but their affair continued, and he vowed to marry her.
She later divorced her husband in 2006 and married Emmanuel the following year.
Their unconventional relationship came into the global spotlight in 2017, when he became president.