PARIS (BN24) — French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday in Delaware Superior Court against U.S. right-wing influencer and podcaster Candace Owens, accusing her of orchestrating a global smear campaign by falsely claiming that France’s first lady was born male.
The lawsuit marks a rare and high-profile international defamation case involving a sitting world leader and reflects the Macrons’ growing frustration over what they call a sustained campaign of public humiliation. In the complaint, the couple alleged that Owens knowingly propagated “verifiably false” claims, including the assertion that Brigitte Macron, 72, was born as “Jean-Michel Trogneux,” the name of her older brother.
“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 states. “The result is relentless bullying on a worldwide scale.”
The legal action targets Owens’ eight-part podcast series titled Becoming Brigitte, which has amassed over 2.3 million views on YouTube, as well as related content posted to her social media platforms. Owens has more than 6.9 million followers on X and more than 4.5 million subscribers on YouTube.
In her most recent podcast episode, Owens called the lawsuit “littered with factual inaccuracies” and described it as a “desperate public relations strategy.” She said she was not informed in advance that a lawsuit would be filed, though the Macrons’ attorneys stated that legal teams had been in contact since January.
A spokesperson for Owens framed the lawsuit as an attack on the First Amendment, claiming it represented “a foreign government attacking the free speech rights of an American independent journalist.”
In a joint statement released by their lawyers, the Macrons said Owens had rejected three formal demands to retract the defamatory statements. “Ms. Owens’s campaign of defamation was plainly designed to harass and cause pain to us and our families and to garner attention and notoriety,” the couple stated. “We gave her every opportunity to back away from these claims, but she refused.”
The case, filed as Macron et al v. Owens et al, underscores the legal challenges public figures face when bringing defamation suits in the United States, where the threshold for proving “actual malice” is high. Plaintiffs must show the defendant knowingly published false information or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
The lawsuit alleges that Owens went beyond commentary and into a realm of malicious falsehoods, spreading rumors that Brigitte Macron had transitioned genders and stolen another identity. The complaint also refers to false insinuations that the Macrons are blood relatives involved in an incestuous relationship.
These rumors, which first circulated online in 2021, have gained attention in recent years on platforms hosted by prominent conservative voices, including Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan. The complaint also references the Macrons’ long-public relationship, stating that Emmanuel Macron, now 47, met Brigitte when he was a high school student and she was a teacher — a relationship that “remained within the bounds of the law.”
Last year, Brigitte Macron won a defamation case in a French court against two women who helped spread gender-related rumors, including one who identified as a medium. That ruling was overturned on appeal this month, and Brigitte has since appealed to France’s highest court.
The Macron lawsuit arrives amid a broader surge in international defamation disputes involving high-profile political figures. In the U.S., President Donald Trump has filed multiple defamation lawsuits, including a $10 billion suit against The Wall Street Journal over a report alleging he created a lewd birthday greeting for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Trump also recently settled a defamation case with ABC for $15 million over a misstatement regarding a jury verdict in a civil sexual assault trial.
Whether the Macrons’ legal action will meet the high burden of proof required by U.S. courts remains to be seen. But their complaint underscores a determination to push back against viral misinformation campaigns targeting public figures in the digital age.
