BY: DM
Published 44 seconds ago
A transatlantic defamation showdown is brewing between Candace Owens and France’s first lady. French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron have taken the extraordinary step of suing the right-wing pundit in a U.S. court, after Owens repeatedly claimed that Brigitte was “born a man.”
According to Time, the 219-page complaint accuses Owens of defamation per se and related offenses for systematically spreading egregious falsehoods about France’s first family. It lists 22 counts of defamation and “false light” invasion of privacy. Among the defamatory claims Owens has endorsed or manufactured are that Brigitte later “transitioned” to live as a woman. Owens also alleged that Macron committed a crime by “grooming” and statutorily raping Emmanuel as a teenager, due to their student-teacher relationship.
What started as an internet-fueled conspiracy theory has escalated into an international legal battle, and neither side is backing down. Here is a look at the surprising legal battle that has been brewing for some time.
Candace Owens has alleged that Brigitte Macron was born a man
According to The Guardian, the bizarre rumor that Brigitte Macron was secretly born male – under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux – first surfaced in France in 2021. French conspiracy theorists on YouTube and social media fanned the story, which quickly went viral. The wild theory tapped into existing suspicions about the Macrons’ marriage — Brigitte is 24 years Emmanuel’s senior and was once his teacher.
In 2021, Brigitte Macron and her family fought back in French courts, suing the originators of the falsehood. In September 2024, a Paris court found two women guilty of defamation for spreading the rumor, awarding damages to Brigitte and her brother. However, an appeals court overturned that verdict in July on technical grounds. The judges ruled the case didn’t fit the legal definition of defamation, without affirming the truth of the claims.
While the Macrons pursued justice at home, the conspiracy theory leapt across the Atlantic. In early 2024, Owens picked up the story and began amplifying it to her millions of followers. According to the Macrons’ lawsuit, Owens has been repeating the falsehood since at least March 2024 “to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety, and make money,” while disregarding all evidence disproving her claim.
Candace Owens’ claims have been aggravated by other influencers.
The lawsuit states that all of these accusations are “demonstrably false.” The Macrons’ complaint meticulously refutes Owens’ fabrications with hard evidence — including Brigitte’s family tree, a newspaper announcement of her birth as a baby girl in 1953, and the fact that she had three children with her first husband years before meeting Emmanuel. While the Macrons have disputed the allegations, other commentators have not stopped Owens’ claims from being repeated.
On his popular podcast, Joe Rogan discussed the rumor and admitted Owens had convinced him. “Yeah, Brigitte Macron’s a man. She got me hook, line, and sinker,” Rogan said per Time. “She would be getting sued right now…they would sue her.”
Legally, the Macrons seek unspecified actual, presumed, and punitive damages for the harm to their reputation. Owens went on her show and dismissed the Macrons’ complaint, calling it ‘littered with factual inaccuracies,” per Reuters. Owens has not filed a counterclaim. Instead, she is waiting to face the Macrons in court.
Do you think the Macrons will win this lawsuit, or is this more of a publicity battle?
