French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron have filed a defamation lawsuit against Candace Owens over the far-right influencer’s “relentless and unjustified smear campaign” falsely accusing Brigitte of being a man.
The 219-page defamation complaint filed in Delaware state court on Wednesday accuses Owens of proliferating “demonstrably false” claims through her platforms, including in an eight-part podcast and on social media, designed to feed a “frenzied fan base” in “pursuit of fame,” the Macrons allege.
“These lies have caused tremendous damage to the Macrons,” according to the lawsuit, which names Owens as well her business entities, which are incorporated in Delaware.
The false claims have subjected the Macrons to a “campaign of global humiliation, turning their lives into fodder for profit-driven lies,” the complaint says.
“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 complaint alleges. “The result is relentless bullying on a worldwide scale. Every time the Macrons leave their home, they do so knowing that countless people have heard, and many believe, these vile fabrications. It is invasive, dehumanizing, and deeply unjust.”
The Macrons have filed a defamation lawsuit against American podcaster Candace Owens, who is accused of spreading baseless conspiracy theories accusing Brigitte Macron of being a transgender woman (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)The 22-count complaint filed in Delaware’s Superior Court seeks damages against Owens and her companies, including punitive damages.
The Independent has requested comment from a representative for Owens, who is expected to respond to the allegations on Wednesday’s podcast.
Brigitte Macron was previously awarded £6,750 in damages last year after two other far-right influencers falsely accused her of being a transgender woman.
In that case, Amandine Roy and Natacha Rey were ordered to pay damages to France’s first lady as well as her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux, after the women amplified bogus claims that Brigitte Macron had never existed and that her brother had changed gender and assumed that identity.
Brigitte Macron has been the subject of several conspiracy theory-driven ‘transvestigations’ baselessly alleging she is a trans woman. She was awarded damages in Paris Criminal Court over similar claims last year (REUTERS)For years, baseless conspiracy theories have proliferated across social media accusing prominent women — from Former First Lady Michelle Obama to Taylor Swift — of secretly being transgender, so-called “transvestigations” that thread anti-trans rhetoric into a web of far-right conspiracy theories.
The couple’s lengthy complaint in Delaware connects the case to Owens’s long history of far-right conspiracy theories — including debunked antisemitic tropes and attempts to minimize the Holocaust — to her attacks against Brigitte Macron, which Owens has monetized on her YouTube channel, garnering millions of views.
The episodic nature of her Becoming Brigitte series resembles serialized true crime investigations, lending themselves to remixes across other platforms like TikTok, where Owens’s claims have racked of tens of millions of views.
“Owens published the series and related X posts with reckless disregard for the truth,” according to the Macrons, who are represented by attorneys with the firms Farnan LLP and Clare Locke LLP.
“Owens was repeatedly presented with credible, verifiable evidence disproving her claims — including documentation, public records, and direct outreach from the Macrons,” the lawsuit states. “Instead of correcting the record, she doubled down. … Owens, fully aware of the truth, has not only declined to retract her statements but has actively expanded on them.”
She has “built a brand on provocation, not truth,” the complaint alleges.
“Her content is not intended to inform but to inflame and attract attention through sensationalism and conspiracy theories,” it claims.
