Macron, Brigitte sue influencer for claiming Brigitte born male
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, filed a defamation lawsuit against US right-wing influencer and podcaster Candace Owens in Delaware Superior Court on Wednesday, July 23.
The lawsuit centres on Owens' claims that Brigitte Macron, 72, is male, alleging she was born as Jean-Michel Trogneux, the name of her older brother.
The Macrons’ complaint accuses Owens of orchestrating a “campaign of global humiliation” through her podcast and social media to boost her audience.
The lawsuit highlights Owens’ eight-part podcast series, Becoming Brigitte, which has garnered over 2.3 million YouTube views, along with related posts on X, where Owens has 6.9 million followers.
The Macrons allege the series spreads “verifiably false and devastating lies,” including claims that Brigitte stole another person’s identity, transitioned to female, and that the Macrons are blood relatives engaging in incest.
The complaint clarifies that Emmanuel Macron, now 47, met Brigitte when he was a high school student and she was a teacher, emphasising that their relationship remained lawful.
It also notes that rumours about Brigitte’s gender began circulating in 2021, amplified by popular conservative podcasts hosted by figures like Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan.
In response, Owens called the lawsuit “littered with factual inaccuracies” and an attempt to smear her character, framing it as a foreign government attacking her First Amendment rights. Her spokesperson described the lawsuit as an effort to bully her, noting that Brigitte had declined multiple interview requests. Owens claimed she was unaware of the lawsuit despite prior communication between the parties’ lawyers since January.
The Macrons stated they pursued legal action after Owens rejected three demands to retract her statements. “Ms Owens’s campaign was designed to harass and cause pain to us and our families while seeking attention and notoriety,” they said in a joint statement. “We gave her every opportunity to retract, but she refused.”
This lawsuit is a rare instance of a world leader suing for defamation in the US, where public figures must prove “actual malice” to succeed, meaning defendants knowingly published false information or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. The case follows other high-profile defamation suits, such as U.S. President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over a claim about a lewd birthday greeting for Jeffrey Epstein in 2003, and a $15 million settlement with ABC over an inaccurate rape claim.
In a related case, Brigitte Macron won a defamation lawsuit in France in September against two women who spread similar gender rumours, though an appeals court overturned the decision this month. She has since appealed to France’s highest court.