French President, Emmanuel Macron, has sued right-wing media personality Candace Owens for defamation after Owens claimed in several videos that Macron's wife Brigitte, could be a man.
The suit charges Owens with 22 counts of defamation as part of "a campaign of global humiliation" intended to generate profit for Owens and her companies.
According to the complaint, Owens published a video in March of 2025 titled "Is France’s First Lady a Man?" Several other videos followed, including a multi-part series.
The suit alleges that Owens has also sold merchandise related to the claim.
The complaint against Owens states that she "was repeatedly presented with credible, verifiable evidence disproving her claims—including documentation, public records, and direct outreach from the Macrons."
In the suit, the Macrons say they have suffered economic damage and loss of business opportunities. They are suing Owens for punitive damages.
Owens said in early 2024 that she would “stake [her] entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man.” Since then, she has doubled down on these claims and added more, including in an eight-part podcast series called Becoming Brigitte, the lawsuit alleges.
The Macrons sought retractions from Owens, the suit says, for the “demonstrably false” claims she has made about them but she instead “mocked them and used them as additional fodder for her frenzied fan base”.
“These outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched fictions included that Mrs Macron was born a man, stole another person’s identity, and transitioned to become Brigitte; Mrs Macron and President Macron are blood relatives committing incest; President Macron was chosen to be the President of France as part of the CIA-operated MKUltra program or a similar mind-control program; and Mrs Macron and President Macron are committing forgery, fraud, and abuses of power to conceal these secrets.
“Because Ms Owens systematically reaffirmed these falsehoods in response to each of our attorneys’ repeated requests for a retraction, we ultimately concluded that referring the matter to a court of law was the only remaining avenue,” the Macrons said in a statement. “Ms Owens’ campaign of defamation was plainly designed to harass and cause pain to us and our families and to garner attention and notoriety. We gave her every opportunity to back away from these claims, but she refused. It is our earnest hope that this lawsuit will set the record straight and end this campaign of defamation once and for all.”
“The falsehoods have taken a toll on the Macrons, who are now subjected to acampaign of global humiliation, turning their lives into fodder for profit-driven lies” and “relentless bullying on a worldwide scale”. Beyond the reputational damage, they have spent considerable sums of money to correct the public record including on legal counsel.”
“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 suit says.
According to the Financial Times, the Macrons are willing to appear in court in Delaware for a trial. They are represented by Clare Locke, a heavyweight law firm that has won major defamation cases, including the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News.
The lawsuit came after the Macrons have sent three separate retraction demands to Owens that included evidence disproving her claims, which she has used to “further taunt the Macrons” and “invent even more damaging lies”, a press release from Locke says.
